IF Downtown Development Corporation (IFDDC)

Idaho Falls Downtown Development Corp. board meeting was held in the Syringa Networks Board Room (460 Park Ave) at 8:30am September 10, 2019 Attendance: Antonio Meza, Steve Fishbach, Kevin Cutler, Greg Crockett, Jake Durtschi, Jill Hansen, Tasha Taylor, Brandi Newton, Lisa Farris, Jim Francis – city council; Staff: Catherine Smith, Mala Lyon, Ed O’Rayeh; visitors: Jim Pletcher Minutes for August 6, 2019 were reviewed – Tasha motioned they be approved; Kevin seconded, and board approved Financial report – all invoices for RDA reimbursement must be turned n by Sept 19, 2019. We are sending a check for $79,000 out to Dave Lawrence today. We did have to use some money from the savings account. We have added insurance on the parking vehicle at $835 per year – this is in the budget for next year. The 5 parking meters are here and will be installed next week. We have hired a new full-time parking ambassador; Juan Hernandez and he will start Sept 23rd. His hours will be Mon – Fri 9-6 with adjustments as needed. Ed will be part-time/on-call. Taste of Downtown expenses are all in now. Jake motioned the financial report be approved; Brandi second and board approved. Catherine – the city gave us $35,000 to operate the on-street parking; we had requested $50,000, so a reduction in the budget we had planned on. Brandi asked if we have to report back to the city specification on what our scope of work was, specific goals or a contract? Jake explained it is a contract pilot program that we are committed to for one year. Randy Fife the city attorney has been working with us on all the details for managing the on-street parking. At the end of the year we will evaluate to see if it makes sense for us to continue. Catherine has requested the city restripe the crosswalks downtown. Yellowstone & B Street and Broadway and Park have been painted already. There is $8,000 they will shift to that project priority. Next year 2020 we are going to look at doing crosswalk art, murals, alley improvements with lighting and public seating, Idaho Falls Power is very interested in moving the wires underground, new signage on the greenbelt – the kiosk that is there now is in bad repair and outdated with old graphics, the sign arch on Broadway – look into more options as it is a very expensive project with lots of engineering details, also looking into re-joining the Mainstreet program. Driggs recently won an award with them. It may be worth the money to re-join and use their re-sources. Getting the power poles and powerlines out of the alleys is a huge project and will involve a cost to each property owner. Lisa said there might be 2020 grant money that could be used toward the project as a whole. Corner project is finished except for the Celt, which still needs the pavers installed. There will be a rail installed and a new tree to the north. This is our first parklet and it looks so good so far. We stayed on budget with the concrete but are about 7% over on the landscaping. Parks & Rec would not take on watering the new trees, so we had to have Dave Lawrence hire someone to do that all summer at the cost of $9,000. It was partly a management issue for the watering with all the different contractors involved. The cost of the steel boxes went up. We had to add bark around the trees to make them safer for people walking by. The sand was planned for 4” but ended up being 10” in some areas and the size of each space with the pavers was estimated to save some engineering costs. The added costs were $14,000 and the $7,000 for watering is what put us $21,000 over budget. Jake said you usually have to plan for a 25% over budget cost, so coming in at only 7% is really good. Broadway project is mostly still being hand watered as the auto-water system was set to mist and needed to be a flow of water. Shoup and A Street had too much water, so there are still some adjustments being made. We lost 2 trees on Broadway, but they have been replaced. The tree on the corner of Shoup and B Street (Shoup side) is under warranty and will be replaced. There is a tree by the Ferrell’s building that is not looking too good and we will watch that one closely. To cover the over budget costs Catherine suggested we use the money in the savings account and if we have excess from this year’s budget it could also be used. Greg asked about the money at the city from the BID? Do we have a current statement from the county? We have not received one for June/July. Our job is not to hold onto money but to use it on projects like this one. Brandi made a motion that the money in savings be used to cover the over budget costs; Tasha second and board approved. Any surplus from the 2018-2019 budget will be placed into the savings account at the end of this fiscal year. Antonio said there was some new discussion by a few of the board members about the decision to not monitor and give out tickets in the parking lots in the evening. Catherine explained that the B Street lot is a real problem in the evening and weekends. We are seeing an increase in overnight parking already and yesterday, Monday, there were several broken beer bottles from the weekend. We have collected and turned into the police drug related items, an actual bag of drugs, needles and other bad things. We have talked to the police several times about more patrols and monitoring, but they are doing their best. Security cameras are a very expensive option we have looked into. Tasha asked why the lots are not handled differently as they seem to be very different. Brandi asked that we make a recommendation on what we want for the B Street lot. Catherine explained that the B Street lot really is in the core or heart of downtown and is our prime parking spot especially in the evenings. People are willing to pay to have a place to park and not worry about it and just go to dinner and a show. Lisa asked how the lighting is as that always helps deter problems. Catherine will call a meeting with the parking committee and the parking staff to create a specific plan for the B Street lot. We will also listen to whoever has an opinion on that lot. Next week IPS will be here to install the 5 parking meters in the parking lots. We will have training on the LPR (License Plate Reader) and other equipment, merchant training on the new meters and how the validation will work. We have the Park I F website up and running already. Marketing will be done with IPS. Lisa – 2017, 2018 and 2019 we have $57,000 to work with. Kingston has applied for faced improvement which will include professional design work. Several others have expressed interest but not followed thru. The 2020 cycle process will start soon. Brandi – Celebrating the 100 years of the Colonial with a street party Friday from 4-8:00 with a 1920’s theme Meeting was adjourned at 9:30am. Our next board meeting will be held October 1, 2019. Respectfully submitted by Kevin Josephson, IFDDC secretary and Mala Lyon