IF Downtown Development Corporation (IFDDC)

Idaho Falls Downtown Development Board Meeting held March 7, 2023, at 9:00am in the Arts Council conference room. Those in attendance: Jake Durtschi, Cindy Napier, Tasha Taylor, Greg Crockett, Antonio Meza, Kevin Cutler, Shanon Taylor, Chip Langerak, Jill Hansen, Brandi Newton, Cindy Napier, Steve Hunter, Jessie & Tara Mendoza, Kerry Hammond - Public Information Officer City of Idaho Falls, Christian Ashcraft - Economic Development Administrator City of Idaho Falls, Caitlyn Long – Community Development Services City of Idaho Falls, Jim Francis – City Councilman City of Idaho Falls; staff - Catherine Smith, Juan Hernandez, Courtney Hernandez and Mala Lyon Minutes of the February 7, 2023, meeting reviewed; Chip motioned to accept, Antonio seconded; Board approved. Financial report – Brandi – snow removal was approved as a priority for this year’s budget, but because of the amount of snow this year we are over budget by $20,000. We have discussed some options such as not doing a spring flower planting, asking Parks & Rec/city for more money or requesting that some money be released from our BID account that the city holds. This is money that was collected in past years with BID assessments. Jake asked is this deficit because of more snow than usual or increased costs? Both – we had to hire a snow removal contractor at the last minute because Kevin Machen, who we have worked with for many years, changed his mind after the first snow fall on doing the new lots the city asked us to maintain. We had to scramble to find someone else and they charge 20 to 30% more than Kevin does. We had based our budget on Kevin’s prices. Councilman Jim Francis recommended that we talk to Pam Alexander for funds from the BID account and that he would say no to asking for money from Parks & Rec. Greg said the BID funds can only be spent within our district and feels we should use that money rather than compromising other things we want to do downtown. We will need to look at costs for next year and decide if snow management is something we want to keep. We have sent out bid requests to several other companies. Catherine said she has another invoice for $3,000 on her desk from Kevin for February snow removal. We did budget $60,000 so we have about $10,000 of the budgeted money left. Costs for snow plowing increase the more snow there is to plow, once it is over 2” the cost doubles. Now we have better data on costs we can figure out next year. Winterbrew was a successful event and thank you to all who came and volunteered. Brandi made the motion to request money from the BID account to cover the snow removal costs; Greg seconded – board approved. Brandi motioned that the financial report be approved; Chip seconded - board approved. Catherine – Collections on unpaid parking citations have been done through Lexis Nexis and we have discovered their address information is not the most up to date, so we are switching to a collections program with IPS. New letters were mailed out Feb. 23rd. Once a citation has been sent to collections they cannot pay online through our portal, they must contact the collection agency and make a payment to them. They are then required to pay the original citation fee, late fees and the collection fee. We have talked to Boise and Fort Collins about how they are handling this process. We can no longer accept payments that are in collection in our office. We tried to do it for one person and the collection company would not accept it as we were not the person that had received the citation and we were not the card holder. They will need the official collection letter when they call. We have about $25,000 of unpaid citations from last year and $30,000 from the year before. We did tow a vehicle that has multiple unpaid citations. We need volunteers for the St. Paddy’s Day event on March 18th. This will be on-street on the 300 block of Park Avenue. We are discussing where to hold future events as snow and ice are often a problem and the city does not like us shutting down the streets. We are trying to keep the events in the heart of downtown as much as we can so people will go into other businesses. We got complaints from Lucy’s about WinterBrew taking all the parking. Bardoza’s came down and handed out a flyer with a coupon and it brought lots of people into their place that day. They are at the other end of the downtown but still benefited from the crowd that was downtown that day. Many of people commented that they didn’t know we were there. Why have we moved events out of the Civitan Plaza? Too much snow, road closure problems and trying to separate us from Alive After 5 so our events are branded as Downtown Development. It’s important that we have our own identity for the events and differing locations helps make that clear. The Broadway Plaza was built for events but we have not figured out the right setup to make it work and it is cold with the wind coming off the river and hot in the summer with no shade. Chip said he understands from a business perspective the problems of having an event out your front door. You become the community ‘outhouse’ and are overwhelmed with people, but you do make money! Antonio reminded us that we have two types of businesses, those that are in business and those that run a business as a hobby. Kevin said the job of the DDC is to bring people downtown. SpringBrew will be at the Broadway Plaza, and we are looking at options for SummerBrew. Kerry said the Pipes and Drums event will be March 17th. Façade grant info: 1. $51,422.27 left from 2017, 2021 and 2022 funding years. 2. $25,000 allocated to Page Ins. is for phase 2 of their façade project. Gathering bids at this time. 3. $25,000 for Downtown Lighting Project - more follow-up needed. 2023 CDBG - City is expected to receive $433,830. Notice to Apply will go out March 10th . Applications will be accepted March 10 - 24, 2023 (mailed or emailed to me). 2023 CDBG funds should be available about Aug of 2023. We are hoping to use some of the funds for safety lighting, more strings of lights across the street and alley lights. Kerry – water tower – construction starts in May - communication plan will go to the city council in April and come to the IFDDC board. We are considering who are directly impacted and need the most information and grouping them in our Public Outreach Planner (POP). We will have once a week meeting that everyone is invited to, to get updates like we did with the Park Avenue waterline project. Chip comment that with the Broadway and Yellowstone intersection project happening we will need to get in front of the information and let people know what is happening and how they can get around it. Recommended that we all download the new city app to get updates. Brandi requested a media kit so we use the same pictures and information, but it does not have the same language as a ‘press release’, more friendly. There is a water tower website. If you get calls and it is the same question let Kerry know so it can be addressed. Greg asked when the old railroad tracks will be removed? We don’t know but are working on it. Meeting adjourned at 10:05am The next board meeting will be held April 4, 2023 Respectfully submitted - Jill Hansen, secretary, and Mala Lyon