Tuesday Night Live

JOHNSON TUESDAY NIGHT LIVE COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES JOHNSON MUNICIPAL BUILDING TUESDAY, MARCH 24, 2026 Present: Howard Romero, Tim Mikovitz, Sophia Berard, Tom Moog, Geoff Hollis, Charles Flaum, Lauren Philie Note: All votes taken are unanimous unless otherwise noted. Howard called the meeting to order at 6:18. Howard asked the committee to elect a new chair. No one expressed interest in serving as chair. Tom asked Howard if he could do it for one more year. Howard continued as chair. Howard said the minutes of February 17 didn’t mention that the new vendor he talked to serves barbecue. He also noted that Discover Johnson did not get the grant for the Blueberry Jam. Tim moved to approve the minutes of February 17, Tom seconded and the motion was passed. Howard said the amount of cash on hand hasn’t changed. It is still about $500. Howard said the selectboard approved the design for Legion Field as presented by DuBois & King. He passed out copies of the design. It includes features like a stone patio, a playground, a sculpture garden, a path and a pavilion, but most of that is not happening in the first phase. Howard is hoping he can lead the project but it is still unclear if that will happen. The selectboard wants to get competitive bids. The bandstand will be moved to its new location and a foundation will be put under it. Power will be brought to it. A steel box will be put behind the bandstand. That involves cutting some trees and brush and making a road around the back side of the library. A 50x100 ft. space for the skating rink will be leveled and reseeded. Howard is pretty sure all that can be done with the money we have. He is concerned about chewing up the field under the skating rink, so leveling that area may be put off until after the Tuesday Night Live season. Tom asked if there is any possibility that we will be told we can’t have TNL on Legion Field this summer. Howard said no, there has been no suggestion of that. Howard noted that in the future there will be new open areas where the buyout properties are. It is possible that there could be a new location for Tuesday Night Live on that land. If we can no longer fit the audience on Legion Field in the future, we will find somewhere else. But we are not going back to Old Mill Park. Sophia said she thinks we were charging vendors $275 the year before last, with a $100 rebate for anyone who showed up every time. It was agreed to charge $300 this year, with no rebate, just a contract that states that they will show up all 6 times. There is one previous vendor that the committee had agreed is not welcome back. Sophia said she has not heard from that vendor yet. If she does, she will tell them there is no space for them. Howard will choose a site for the bandstand next week with anyone who wants to help. He will send out a note letting people know when he plans to do it. TNL Committee Meeting Minutes p. 2 March 24, 2026 Tim said he can get a quote for scrim sponsor signs. Howard said he measured the backstop. We can get 45 signs on it. Isabelle Sullivan is okay with leaving it in place. So we can use scrims on the backstop for signs. Tim said he thinks a ballpark figure for the cost of 35 signs would be between $1000 and $1500. Howard said there are often several businesses that want to contribute a different amount than they have in past years, requiring us to make signs in a different size. Howard said he talked to someone at Great Big Graphics who is going to give him a price for doing computer graphics for each of our signs and cutting them in black vinyl. He suggests we could sand the existing wooden signs and paint them yellow and then put the vinyl graphics on them. Tom questioned how we can afford this. Lauren suggested that maybe instead of asking Concept2 for a sponsorship we could ask them for a bigger grant, or maybe we could get a Vermont Community Foundation Grant. Tim suggested maybe Great Big Graphics would do half as an in-kind donation. Howard said another possibility might be for Great Big Graphics to do the graphics and cut vinyl in 12- inch heights and then he could print the signs on his machine. Tim said scrims would be lighter. Howard said they would be easier to store. It was agreed to get prices for both. Sophia said we should factor in the work involved with the wood option when considering prices. Tom asked whether lights on the field will be part of the first phase. Howard said we may end up putting up some lights. He kept hearing concerns about lights shining into windows of nearby houses. Tom suggested lighting up the sponsor signs when it is dark for the last few shows. Tim asked if the lights would be on timers or switches. Howard said they would be switched, probably from the stage. Charles said the Blueberry Jam is still happening. There will still be music, but they can’t have a $4K band and they can’t pay Johnny Betts $1000. They found someone to do sound for $400 and they are looking into booking Beg, Steal or Borrow. They might ask the TNL committee to find another band in around the $1000 range. Sophia said there are probably some local bands in that range who have reached out to the TNL committee. If she sees any emails from bands that seem like a good fit she can send the information to Charles. Howard said we had talked about getting the rights to use the poster from last year again. But he doubts all the parts of it are in separate layers, which would mean Carrie would have to start over again. Charles said he is sure if she did it in Photoshop she can pull out layers. He feels we definitely have the rights to it. Howard said he will let someone else handle it. Tom suggested letting Carrie know we would like to use the same poster again with this year’s bands listed down the side. The committee agreed to that. It was agreed that the poster deadline should be May 24 and the billboard deadline should be May 30. Lauren will look into some grant options. Geoff agreed to print thank you messages in cards to be sent to the sponsors. Howard will order some new cards. It was agreed to order them with a thank you message printed inside. TNL Committee Meeting Minutes p. 3 March 24, 2026 Sophia said we had talked about Chris Lyon as MC. Tom said Chris is willing to do it. Whatever compensation he got before is fine. Sophia said she will email him to confirm. Since the number of cards we already have on hand is not enough to send to all sponsors, it was agreed that instead of having Geoff print messages in the cards we have, we should just wait until the new cards with the printed message arrive and use those. Tim said he got a container price from Conex.com. The cost of a 20 ft. used box delivered is $1849. The cost of a new box is about double that. He thinks we can probably find a box for less, but prices fluctuate. Lauren will start solicitations around May 1, assuming all the cards have gone out. Howard will drop the new cards off at the town office and let committee members know when they are there so people can stop by and sign them. Lauren will send the sponsor list with addresses to Geoff and Geoff will address the envelopes. It was agreed to schedule the next meeting on April 14. Tim moved to adjourn at 7:40 and the motion was seconded and passed. Minutes submitted by Donna Griffiths