Business Improvement District

Business Improvement District Board Minutes Noon, Tuesday January 19, 2021 Country Traditions 303 N. Main Street, Fremont NE 68025 and via Zoom Board Present: Vince O'Connor, JJ Bixby (arrived at 12:02 pm), Jerry Johnson, Kevin Main, Howard Krasne (arrived at 12:07) Ginger Rosenthal, Roxie Kracl and Tom Coday Absent: Richard Register and Bill Parks Guests: Shannon Mullen, Brian Newton, Brendan Murray, Thom & Barb Christensen and Collin Spilinek 1. Meeting was called to order by Chairman Coday. Roll call was taken. It was noted that a copy of the Open Public Meeting Act was posted and available in the room. 2. Election of Officers for 2021 -Tom Coday Chair, J.J. Bixby Vice-Chair, Roxie Kracl Secretary - Motion was made by Vince O'Connor to approve slate of officers and seconded by Jerry Johnson. Motion carried 6/0 3. Motion was made to approve the minutes of the December 15, 2020 meeting by Kevin Main and seconded by Jerry Johnson Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote 7/0. 4. During the comments from the public Barbara Christensen reported upon some delays on lights due to weather. Vince O'Connor said nice job to Barb and their committee. Barb agreed and said thanks to the merchants. 5. A motion was made by Vince O'Connor and seconded by Jerry Johnson to reimburse the city up to $225 per holiday for putting up the flags for the calendar year of 2021. Motion carried 7/0 6. A motion was made by Roxie Kracl and seconded by Vince O'Connor to reimburse the city up to $3,000 to replace all 11 parking lot signs including some new brackets and rehanging the Memorial signs in two of the parking lots. Motion carried 8/0 7. A motion was made by Roxie Kracl and seconded by Vince O'Connor to approve mailing out a BID newsletter at cost of up to $600. Motion carried 7/1 with Howard Krasne voting No. The cost is to cover printing, assembly, and mailing. List is being updated for duplicates and new business owners. Discussion on obtaining email address so in future we can email veresus mailing to save on costs. Shannon Mullins has three bids out for the project and hoping to mail approximately 349 newsletters within our budget. 8. Discussed the installation of a fountain, brought to the Board by Don Cunningham, who said it could cost anywhere from $10,000 to $70,000. The board discussed the maintenance and liability with installing a fountain and agreed not to pursue it at this time . Howard Krasne & Ginger Rosenthal discussed looking at other features that would draw people downtown as the Johns C Fremont Park just installed splash pad with fountain features. 9. Committee Reports: Financial Report – Tom Coday reported we had approximately $28,000 in account with another $48,000 to be coming around March. The BID’s first five year term will be up for renewal in November. If a second five year term is approved by City Council, any monies in the account will be rolled into new BID term. If the BID is not renewed, monies will remain in the City’s general fund. There was discussion on property owners that have not paid their BID assessment, the lien that is placed on their property, how liens are satisfied when the property is sold. Jerry Johnson suggested doing prize money for parades and reaching out to area schools for best bands. Maintenance Report – J.J & Roxie will work with Shannon on getting bids to update green spaces in parking lots. Recommendations were made to get rid of the evergreen shrubs and mulch and replace with rock & grasses as some of the newer green spaces have already been refurbished.  Future Projects Report – Need to make a plan for future projects so can work on a budget for next BID term. Ginger will work with some of the business owners and act as liaison with them to maybe see if can determine some of their long-term goals and projects that we could do as a committee to benefit all businesses. Design / Christmas Decorations – Kevin reported about 50% of the poles now have Christmas decorations. Will look at how many poles we need to add electricity to light up in future. He will also be evaluating for the next five years in project cost for additional decorations and replacing the bows on existing ones. 10. MainStreet – Shannon Mullen reported working on the newsletter. 11. Chairman Coday noted next meeting was set for February 16, 2021 at noon at Country Traditions and via Zoom. A motion to adjourn was made by Jerry Johnson and seconded by Ginger Rosenthal. Motion carried by unanimous roll call vote 8/0. Respectfully submitted, Roxie Kracl, Secretary