Business Improvement District

Downtown Business Improvement District Board Tuesday June 18, 2019 12:00 P.M. To 1:00 P.M. Grace Church, 109 East 6th Street, 2nd floor Kenya Room. Fremont Nebraska 1. Meeting called to order and announcement of Open Meeting Law 2. Approval of minutes of the May 21, 2019 BID meeting. 3. Comments or discussion from the public. 4. Discussion and possible action on Street Departments request for replacement parts for light poles. 5. Report and possible action on new Christmas Decorations for fall 2019 by Kevin Main. 6. Report from JJ Bixby on the maintenance of the rock areas on 5th street. 7. Committee Reports: Financial Report – Report from Brian Newton Maintenance – Report from Jerry Johnson the repair of parking lot signs Marketing - Report from Howard Krasne on Marketing Future Projects Design / Christmas Decorations 9. Approval of expenses a) Flag brackets for light poles. 10. MainStreet Report – Cortney Schaefer 11. Next meeting will be July 16, 2019 12. Adjournment Agenda posted at the Municipal building on June 14, 2019. The Board reserves the right to go into Executive Session when necessary. A copy of the Open Meeting Law is available for review by the public. The Board reserves the right to adjust the order of the items on this agenda.  Business Improvement District Meeting Minutes Noon, May 21, 2019, Grace Church Board Present: Tom Coday, Kevin Main, Bob Missel, Jerry Johnson, Bill Parks, Vince O'Connor, JJ Bixby, Howard Krasne and Roxie Kracl. Absent: Glen Ellis and Richard Register Guests attending were Cortney Schaefer, Brian Newton and Barb Christensen. Item #1. Chairman Coday called the meeting to order and it was noted that a copy of the Open Public Meeting Act was available in the room. Item #2. Motion was made to approve the minutes of the April 16, 2019 meeting by Johnson and seconded by O’Connor. All members voted yay, motion carried. Item #3. Chairman Coday opened the floor for comments or discussion from the public. There was none. Item #5. Brian Newton explained that the proposed downtown drone zone submitted by Ean Mikale, Infinite 8 will not be going forward. He has chosen not to go forward with his downtown location and instead concentrate on an area around the hospital. Item #7. Reports from the various subcommittees: Financial Report – there was no report given Maintenance – Johnson reported on available product from Newman Sign Company out of North Dakota. They have a ¼” aluminum sign product they could produce for $130 per sign plus shipping. He will be requesting artwork of the proposed sign that we can review at a future meeting. He also talked about another vendor Net Post that offers a similar product at a cost of $140 per unit. Also requesting artwork from them. Marketing – Krasne reviewed the recent promotional campaign and the successes it has received. There have been 1600 likes received for the Historic Fremont Facebook page as well as 21,000 unique views. This effort targets the Omaha and Lincoln markets. He suggested we encourage businesses to share the videos on their own social media platforms. O’Connor gave a report on recent Convention Visitors Bureau (CVB) efforts. Their campaign “Fremont’s open for business” is being promoted through multiple channels including WOWT. CVB advertising efforts are also currently making use of TV ads and Facebook. They have also picked up on the “Here we grow” campaign and have merchandise bags available supporting the new campaign. Fia & Belle is this years Nebraska Passport stop in Fremont; this continues to be a great promotion for the downtown since it began. Kracl remined the board of the June 28th Benefit for Flood Relief event to take place starting at 5:00 PM in the Ilgenfritz parking lot. All proceeds going to support flood victims and the none-profits that have supported them. The theme for the event is “Life’s a beach on Fremont Island”. Future Projects – no report Design / Christmas Decorations – Main said they would be meeting next month. Item 9. Approval of expenses – there were no expenses to approve. Item 10. Cortney Schafer, Director of MainStreet Fremont reminded the board that the Concert in the Park Series will be starting June 6th with a time for children at 6:30 PM with the Concert starting at 7:00 PM. She said the annual downtown cleanup will be Wednesday May 22nd and volunteers are needed. MainStreet’s annual Golf Charity Classic event will be June 28th and sponsors are still needed for the event. July 27th will be the new Summer Fest, an all-day event replacing the annual downtown Crazy Days. She also shared that new banners are being made for the light poles and that the hanging baskets would be going up next week. Next she shared a new effort that benefits businesses and guests visiting the downtown Businesses and visitors can load an app on their phones called “DISTRX”, the app alerts visitors to all things relative to the district including shopping, food, entertainment and special events. The product is available to all and you do not need to be a MainStreet member to participate. She then passed out a mocked-up example of a future BID Newsletter, which will be produced quarterly and asked board members to review it. Her last item was to share information about a new weekly video she is producing to promote local businesses called “Minute on Main.” This program will showcase local businesses and promote the downtown. Item #11. Chairman Coday noted the next meeting was set for June 18, 2019, at the same time and location. Item #12. The meeting was adjourned at 1:00pm. Respectfully Submitted Bob Missel, Secretary