Downtown Business District

Downtown Business District Meeting Minutes-Annual and Special Meetings May 24, 2023 363 Main Street, Suite 404 Middletown, CT 06457 Attendees: Jen Alexander (Chair) Dep Chief Rich Davis (MPD) Chris Conley (Commissioner) Sara Mendillo (Chamber) Diane Gervais (Commissioner) Chief Erik Costa (MPD) Matt Lefebvre (Commissioner) Cathy Duncan (Chamber) Marie Kalita (Commissioner) Kevin Elak (Health Director) Brent Thomsen (Commissioner) Ken Ahnell (DBD Beautification Mgr) Maryellen Shuckerow (St. Vins) Trevor Davis (363 Main LLC) Rani Arbo (Wesleyan) Howard Weissberg (Dep. Dir. Pub. Works) Rob Lucheme (Tschudin Choc) Capt Brian Hubbs (MPD) Bobby Peterson (Mayor’s Chief of Staff) Cassandra Day (Press) CALL TO ORDER: Meeting was called to order by Chair, Jen Alexander at 8:32 am CITY PARTNERS Mayor- Not Present at 8:32. Police- Chief reported PAL had its ceremony for the new building location in the north end. He feels the location across from St. Vincent’s and Community Health is a great spot for the program. Noted how grateful they are for all the support for PAL. PD now has motorcycle units and mountain bikes as well as walking beats, and you will see them increase toward June and as more manpower becomes available. They will focus on hot spots. Planning in progress for all events, Memorial Day Parade, Pride, Juneteenth, Car Cruise, July 1st fireworks. Push for encouraging locking car door with uptick in the state of stolen vehicles. Would appreciate support to exclude hookah lounges from our allowed businesses in Middletown at the next P & Z meeting, after the shooting and loss of life this issue is very important. There is a request to the City to revoke the current license of the Hookah on S Main Street due to the illegal activity and constant police calls after midnight involving crime.  Motion made by Diane to support the regulation text change  2nd by Marie  All in favor Sandra will speak at the P & Z meeting on behalf of the commission.  DBD Minutes Pg. 2 Jen asked Sandra to do introductions around the screen. (All names are under attendees in these minutes) Public Works Howard Weissberg reported that they are working with the DBD and the $300k in ARPA finding to work on street scape projects and improvements. He would like a full inventory and analysis on condition of trees Jen suggested forming a committee of DBD commissioners interested in this topic. Discussion followed on how the DBD would like to see the dollars spent. Jen asked for interested commissioners. Committee will consist of: Jen, Diane, Matt, Brent, and Tom & Ken Ahnell Sandra will set up a meeting with Public Works once the funding is in place so discussion on how to proceed can occur. Howard reported the Complete Street Grant of $15k pivoted from back in parking to lighting analysis to record light intensity through downtown and identify dark spots to normalize safety in these areas. Low lighting crosswalks are also in the study possibly at Grand and Liberty streets. Grinding for trip hazards on sidewalks has begun and is in process. Mayor/Economic Development/Parking- Bobbye joined the meeting. She noted the City is moving forward with stricter regulations for hookah lounges and looking to revoke the Hidden Hookahs permit. All city departments met with legal to see what is needed to accomplish this. At this point the City believes it is a public health issue to have this open. They will be prohibited city wide if passed. Also we need to make sure that businesses are staying in the confines of the permit issued. There are lots of events coming up and lots of road closures and hoping to keep everything as open as easy as possible. EDC Director position is unclear at this time if it will go before the June council meeting. Still in transition. Jen asked about parking issues. Bobbye clarified that the parking issues are still hers to address. Jen mentioned the Storefront Art Project at roller rink has a planned mural and unfortunately the parking meters are blocked and asked Bobbye for assistance on addressing that. Marie asked who is in charge of calling Parking Committee meetings. Discussion followed. Jen inquired on riverfront concerts. Bobbye said they will be in July, August and September The question of Bird Bikes came up and Bobbye noted they did not have a fleet manager for this area so they are on hold. Bobbye noted that Kisha is moving the Summer Sounds to Spear Park for this year and moving them to Fridays in between Arts Fest to keep with the Friday theme.  DBD Minutes Pg. 3 Health Department- Kevin said they are excited for the event season, however that means the spread of viruses so try to stay healthy and well. They are getting a large presence for the Health and Wellness event: Middlesex Health, CHC, Husky Health, HIV Testing, all vaccines offered. There have been questions raised about suicide prevention after some incidents in the past few weeks. Looking to do suicide prevention training classes to help empower individuals to see signs and symptoms to be preventable. Looking to hold them at the Library and City Hall. Narcan training is ongoing as well. Kevin noted there has been attention paid to the hookah situation and he believes it’s a major health crisis. Smoking indoors, violence associated with them, etc. He fully supports the zoning changes. He heard there may be proposed legislation to allow tobacco bars in CT and noted we should get ahead of that thru City regulation. COMMUNITY PARTNERS St. Vincent’s- Maryellen reported things are going well. Amazing Grace is very busy, and stocked. Sandra mentioned the upcoming fundraiser Open Your Heart Event for St. Vin’s. Maryellen mentioned that she is thrilled that PAL is moving in across the street from them. She is working with the newly formed north end group and meeting with them next week. She thanked the DBD for supporting the 2nd clean up day and is hoping James’s position made it into the budget. Chamber- Sara thanked those that joined Larry’s event. It was a great evening. She went on to announce several upcoming events sponsored by the Chamber and noted Pride is all hands-on deck and now has over 100 vendors attending and is much bigger this year. Car Show is June 14. Small business awards are coming up. Cathy noted CBB is June 1st virtual only. Cathy & Sandra noted that they frequently send out notices/alerts/road closure for events to businesses. Wesleyan- Not present Approval of April Minutes  Motion made by Marie  2nd by Diane  All in favor Treasurer’s Report-April  Motion to approve made by Diane  2nd by Marie  All in favor  DBD Minutes Pg. 4 DBD COMMITTEE UPDATES: Jen asked to change Advertising and Promotion categories on agenda to just Promotion and this would include: brochures, wayfinding, advertising, social media, etc. Advertising/Promotion- No updates Gift Cards- Sandra reported they are selling very well. Maintenance & Beautification- Spring planters will be replaced with summer planting in the next few weeks. Tom Ford sent his crew to clean sidewalks to prepare for summer. Special Projects- Jen noted we had 16 applications for the outdoor improvement grant. Jen thanked Sandra and Maire for meeting to approve event grants and we have 10 that we would like to fund, but it exceeds the $12k approved by the commission. Jen asked the commission to increase the amount by an additional $10k and noted we would like that money to be used to target events throughout the summer on the stage at Holy Trinity using Trevor and Matts music connections. Also, having entertainment on our streets to enjoy to add to the atmosphere during the summer. Discussion followed.  Motion made by Diane to allot another $10k for small grants for downtown events  2nd made by Marie  All in favor Jen noted the additional funding we approved for social media and Sandra has great ideas to improve on that and bring in more help. 925 Report- Discussion followed on outdoor music events over the summer. Trevor mentioned working with Kisha and her brining show mobile back to Spear Park. Also Ecklessia has many events planned on stage. Trevor would like to bring Dixieland band to downtown as well. Sandra discussed the meeting set up with Holy Trinity to discuss insurance issue for the stage. Adjournment:  Motion to adjourn at 9:36 am by Maire  2nd by Diane  All in Favor. Meeting Adjourned