IF Downtown Development Corporation (IFDDC)

Idaho Falls Downtown Development Corp. board meeting was held May 7, 2019 in the Syringa Networks Board Room (460 Park Ave) at 8:30am Attendance: Jill Hansen, Kevin Cutler, Jim Francis, Greg Crockett, Tasha Taylor, Antonio Meza, Lisa Farris, Brandi Newton, Jake Durtschi, Shanon Taylor, Mark Munoz, Brent McLane - Staff: Catherine Smith, Mala Lyon & Ed O’Rayeh; visitor: Malory Johnson Minutes for April 2, 2019 were reviewed – Antonio motioned they be approved; Jake seconded, and board approved Shanon – financial report: re-imbursement money from city received; year to date income is up from events and parking; $7,000 cash/change for events needs to be in a different category. Shanon motioned they be approved; Greg seconded, and board approved Catherine: Broadway project will begin May 9th. Had a meeting with 20 city staff and got it all planned out. Taking pictures of trees to show which have died. Trees will be cut down as they go. Brad Cramer is interested in extending the Broadway project to the corner of Broadway and Memorial to make it all look the same and is talking the IFRA to help fund that expansion of the project that will include pavers and flower pots. It is a 45 days project, so it should be completed June 28th. We will then have a ribbon cutting. Project is scheduled to be finished before July 4th. Corner projects: has started with the city fixing and replacing water lines; they will come back in the future and make the flower pot auto watered; There is not funding to do it right now, but this will make it easy when they have the money and Parks and Rec can pay for it. Shoup and A Street is set up on the auto watering now. This was accomplished in one afternoon with the city and Sheri from 4-Seasons Landscaping working together. Lyon Johnson and Lee Washburn from Parks and Rec has been great to work with. Memorial and A Street has been demo-ed and all the pavers are here, so it should go very smoothly with the city demoing, concrete and pavers placed one right behind the other. The flower pots will be here in 4 weeks and will be quickly placed and planted. Public Works repaired some damage to a new curb that was done by a snowplow. Greg asked if any of the alley entrances are going to be re- done? Catherine said that Public Works is adding to our projects as much as they can while they are already here working. If anyone knows of a specific area that needs work send us a picture. The work at SnakeBite included fixing the foundation and they are putting gin new tile by the front door. Jill said businesses should use the city curb and gutter program to help them pay for those improvements. Parking: We have ordered the five IPS meters for the parking lots and the license plate reader which can also be used for on-street parking down the road. Catherine has met with all the city council members except John Radford to discuss the on-street parking and having the IFDDC manage it. We are asking for $50,000 from the city to help get it up and running. Jake said it can save the city money by shifting labor force away from the parking monitoring. Catherine said it will be an expanding role for the DDC. Brandi said we can use our focus of customer service and it follows our mission statement. Greg said people need to buy into the concept that parking isn’t free - the projected growth of our city will require paid parking. Catherine said people are willing to pay. We collected $1,500 in customer parking revenue in April with Ed managing the lots and being able to be here in the evening to educate people. Ed said most people are nice and want to understand how the lot works so he takes the time to explain. He encourages them to get validation stamps. We had 650 validation stamps returned in April. Brandi said they do not get any one complaining at the Arts Council and is curious if anyone does. Tasha said she overheard a business owner griping about parking to a customer and after the customer left Tasha told them you realize that you just ran a customer off by telling them there is no parking? We all need to be the positive voice in explaining parking. Brandi said people are figuring out they can park on the west side of the railroad tracks and get to the Museum. The Call to Artists for the 3 murals closed May 1st. We received 30 proposals from artists. The committee will meet on Thursday and pick the designs. The announcement will be made May 15th and the artists will start ASAP. Next year we will do murals on the back of the Colonial Theater and the back of the ARTitorium. State of Downtown Annual meeting – we had over 60 people attend. Lee Radford explained the IFRA, Brad Cramer, the Mayor and Catherine spoke with a power point presentation sharing all we have accomplished this past year. The Post Register was there and did a great article the following Saturday on the front page. They also used our dashboard info to do an article on housing downtown. Catherine attended one of the I-15 freeway meetings and the Broadway exit will not be removed, just reconfigured into a split diamond style of an exit. Brent said they want to improve the exit for people coming from the north. Catherine encouraged everyone to go to the public meeting as the impact north of the downtown area could impact 500 homes, a school and a church with the proposed changes. Lisa said the next public meeting is May 16th at 3:00 pm and again at 6:00 pm at the Shilo. Lisa – We have $3,000 grant money from 2017 and $55,000 for 2018; the request for $60,000 for 2019 is being presented for approval. We have several businesses that have started the application process but not finished – Dave’s Bike Shop; Vogue Beauty College; Persnickety Lemon. The new restaurant Hot Spring Pho has applied and the owners of the old Ferrell’s building. Brent – the South Downtown (SoDo) concept and plan draft should be completed this summer. This encompasses Broadway to Pancheri. The Downtown area now is from Cliff to G Street. That make the 2 districts overlap as part of the plan. We then want to create a plan for the residential areas that surround the downtown. Catherine said we will look at possible expanding and re-doing the BID to include the South Downtown area. Meeting was adjourned at 9:19am. Our next board meeting will be held June 4, 2019 Respectfully submitted by Kevin Josephson, IFDDC secretary and Mala Lyon