IF Downtown Development Corporation (IFDDC)

Idaho Falls Downtown Development Corp. board meeting was held February 5, 2019 in the Syringa Networks Board Room (460 Park Ave) at 8:30am Attendance: Brandi Newton, Greg Crockett, Jill Hansen, Kevin Cutler, Tasha Taylor, Antonio Meza, Kevin Josephson, Steve Fischbach, Dana Briggs, Lisa Farris, Jim Francis, Shanon Taylor, Mark Munoz and guest Rogelio Perez. Staff: Catherine Smith, Mala Lyon Minutes for January 8, 2019 were reviewed – Tasha motioned they be approved; Jill seconded and board approved Shanon – financial report: We have had a few more property owners pay their BID assessments; snow removal costs have been high this year; motioned the report be approved – Greg seconded – board approved Catherine: requested a motion be made to move the Goals & Reflections item on the agenda to the end of the meeting. Jill motioned; Shanon seconded and board approved. Catherine: Winterbrew was very successful. Made about $4,000 profit. The bands 2am Logic and DownBeat Silo were both very good. We will need to remember to budget in money for snow removal for the future Winterbrews. Public Art Committee: 3 murals will be done this summer. Two will be funded thru the IFDDC budget and the 3rd by the Idaho Falls Historic Downtown Foundation which is putting in $3,500. An RFP will go out to artists in March. If the weather permits the artists will paint the murals in May & June. The murals will be located on the Villa Coffeehouse in the alley, Willow Tree Gallery back wall and the 3rd location is being determined. We want them all to be in high visibility locations. Possible sights are the MusiCare west wall, either BlackRock or Variety Mart in the alley, back of the Colonial Theater, back of the ARTitorium or Krung Thep in the alley. We may wait and do the ARTitorium and the Colonial Theater next year. The traffic cabinets are all wrapped in the vinyl wraps and look amazing. Broadway Street landscaping – agreement has been made with Public Works and they will write the checks and IFRDA will reimburse them, so we don’t have to worry about the cash flow. New curb and gutters, new sidewalk and pavers and the new trees will be installed. The trees have been ordered so they will not hold us up and Parks & Rec has agreed to cut out all the old trees, which will be done during the night so traffic will have minimal disruption. 3 different types of trees have been purchases - columnar oaks, locust & a crab apple that does not produce fruit but has a wonderful flower in the spring. Tree grates will not be installed as they were going to cost $72,000 and that put us over budget. Parks & Rec requested auto watering lines for the hanging flower baskets, but the expense is high so we are considering options. If it fits into the budget, it will be included. Intersection corner projects - Dave Lawrence has also ordered the trees for the corner projects. We will do the south side corners first then come back and do the north side corners as that will disrupt the traffic less. There are 10 intersections – we will demo the corners – including taking the planter boxes out & cut the trees down, install cement, then pavers and plant new trees. Parking Committee – the city has a parking committee that meets on a ‘as needed’ basis – for example Diablas wanted a 20-minute loading zone sign removed as they do not need 2 loading zones right by each other. The city parking committee met and agreed, and the sign was removed. The Mayor wants us to wait to include any info about on-street parking on our new parking facebook page. We can not block anyone from making comments. We will focus on information on where people can park and what the rules are. MCS Advertising is creating an insert for our downtown brochure that will give parking info. We want to work closely with the city as we use the $100,000 on parking so we invest in technology that will work with what the city has and is planning for the future. The city parking committee currently does not have anyone from the police department but will be assigning someone soon. The Broadway underground garage is not open yet. There were some problems with the concrete. Jill stated that they are waiting to turn the garage over to the city, so it is city property. There are 49 underground spots and 21 surface spots. Catherine is doing an article for Idaho Falls Magazine that will address parking in March. The Mayor recently visited Boise and used their very user-friendly parking technology and was impressed. Much of our downtown parking is not monitored as well as it could be because there is only one person doing it. We do not want o focus on the punitive ‘park downtown and you might get a ticket’ – we want to be positive and say this is where you can park, and it is in easy walking distance from where you want to go. Goals and Reflection of past – 2019 – In 2016 the board created a like and dislike list about downtown. The good news is many of the dislikes have been addressed. Looking for a new list so we have goals going into next year 2020. Pigeons are an on-going problem. Greg wants to see an entrance sign installed letting people know you have arrived into the downtown. Steve said vertical signs do not impact the highway so we would not have to deal with Idaho Transportation Department like we would if we did an arch sign. Tony said the sign by the freeway exit coming onto Sunnyside is really nice and we could copy that design. Catherine said some other things to look at are more garbage cans – like by Great Harvest. People will throw away garbage if there is a can nearby. Lights and cleaning up the alleys. More murals. Lisa said we need a grocery store and utilize indoor/outdoor space. Catherine said Smokin’ Fins is going to use their outdoor space as an extension of their restaurant. Also another fun space that serves frozen yogurt would be good for the downtown. Jim asked if we were all aware of the glass recycling bin. It is in the alley behind Idaho Mountain Trading close to Wee Bee Toys. We would like to see it moved closer to the businesses on A Street and Park that use a lot of glass wine and beer bottles in their business. Lisa – We still have $1,800 from 2017 for sign grants. Have some applications out to Persnickety Lemon and Ming’s but nothing returned yet. Dana – Catherine has been in lots of meetings recently with the different city departments to coordinate everything that is happening this summer. She is doing a wonderful job as this is very difficult to keep everyone focused and helping them understand what has to happen. Greg offered congratulations to Catherine for being featured on the cover of the Idaho Falls Magazine that just came out. It was a great article that should help people understand what we are doing. Meeting was adjourned at 9:30am. Our next board meeting will be held March 5, 2019. Respectfully submitted by Kevin Josephson, IFDDC secretary and Mala Lyon