Old Orchard Business District Advisory Commission

Old Orchard Special Business District Advisory Commission MEETING MINUTES APPROVED MEETING DATE: Tuesday, April 12, 2016 LOCATION: City Hall CALLED TO ORDER: 8:02 AM MEETING ADJOURNED: 8:45 AM NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, May 10, 2016 NAME PRESENT ABSENT Joe Fichter, Chair X Angel Venegoni X Claire Winkler X Mary Jane Armstrong X Steve Scheipeter X Holland Saltsman X Robert Weber X Vacancy Vacancy Council Liaison Mara Perry, City Liaison X Also in attendance: Jim Groetsch – President of the Old Orchard Bethesda Residents’ Association Gordon Ferguson – Old Orchard Bethesda Resident Angela Foley – WG Farmers’ Market Manager Fran Sudekum – Administrative Support APPROVAL OF MINUTES Motion to approve the February minutes as was made by Angel Venegoni, seconded by Mary Jane Armstrong, motion was unanimously approved. VISITOR COMMENTS Three residents from Bethesda in Old Orchard were in attendance; had no additional comments to add, just wanted to hear the update on the intersection of Big Bend and North Old Orchard sight lines issue. BIG BEND AT N. OLD ORCHARD UPDATE Mara Perry retrieved accident Information for the intersection as requested. There have been three accidents in the last two years at the intersection, “failure to yield.” The two businesses directly affected by potentially losing a parking space in front of their business are Stratton’s Café and John Layton/State Farm Insurance Agent. Both have been contacted and are not opposed to losing the space to potentially address this safety issue. Stratton’s was concerned however; that people would still park in the affected space and policing the new restriction would need to take place. It was suggested that adding yellow striping to the potential restricted space would help; that suggestion will be passed along. State Farm requested a disability parking space be added in front of its business as long as parking spaces were potentially being adjusted. Angel Venegoni made a motion to send a recommendation to the Webster Groves Public Works Department to extend the no parking area on the north side of Big Bend Boulevard on either side of its intersection with North Old orchard. The motion was seconded by Steve Scheipeter and unanimously approved. Angel Venegoni made a motion to send a recommendation to the Webster Groves Public Works Department to add a disability parking space in front of State Farm Insurance. The motion was seconded by Steve Scheipeter and unanimously approved. WG Public Works will pass on the recommendations to St. Louis County who controls Big Bend and has the final say on the matter. GAZEBO SERIES UPDATE A verbal agreement has been reached with Amanda to oversee running the series to replace Cindy. The Gazebo Series Committee has been meeting; they are not a sub-committee of the OOSBD, but organized similar to the Jazz Fest. The music line up is set and the movie line up is 99% set. Mara Perry will issue the special activities permit which covers all the city departments involved. HOLIDAY PLANS The Old Orchard Holiday Open House will be on Saturday, November 19th and the Holiday Tree Lighting will also be on Saturday, November 19th; at the close of the Open House. Angela Foley, WG Farmers’ Market Manager, has agreed to organize the Holiday Open House and Tree Lighting events. Commission members felt there was value in keeping the basic tenets of the previous year’s activities and establish certain traditions that could be kept going forward. Plans and ideas were discussed with Angela:  Santa and his entourage will be asked back. Angela will meet with Santa/Tommy and work out the details of what that entourage would include. Pending weather, it would be advantageous to have animals in his petting zoo that could actually be petted.  Mara Perry received a call from an interested party that has a connection to a group that provides live “reindeers” to events.  Santa could arrive once again in a convertible provided by Subaru.  Santa’s Mailbox o Repair and paint the mailbox; Steve Scheipeter will contact the Webster Groves High School to see if anyone/group there would be interested in repairing/painting the mailbox. o Put up a sign or banner on the gazebo announcing the return of the mailbox. o Add holiday decorations to the mailbox to make it stand out and be more noticeable. o Take letters out of the mailbox and give them to Santa as a follow up or close to the event.  Make the Tree Lighting more formal. Perhaps have the St. Louis Caroling Association back to help lead the singing of carols.  Angela will return to the Commission at the July or August meeting with an update. FARMERS’ MARKET Old Orchard businesses and merchants can schedule a table for free at the Farmers’ Market; contact Angela Foley to do so. CITY UPDATE  The Commission will be getting a new City Council liaison.  The “Quonset Hut” may have a hair salon moving in.  “The Bend,” a hair salon opened in the former location of Tiger Travel on Big Bend.  The gas station at Big Bend & Laclede is now open.  Jimmy John’s in Yorkshire Plaza is starting their renovations.  Green Goose Resale and AT&T Cellular are moving into locations at Yorkshire Plaza.  Delve MIY in Old Webster will be open next month; they are however, participating in the Old Webster Trade Association’s Girls’ Night Out (a.k.a. GNO) event this month.  The City has received 14 to 15 business licenses this month.  We will start seeing activity on the Webster University for their big construction project in the middle of the campus for their new interdisciplinary building. It will be an 18 month process. Tree protection fences should already be in place. A large crane will appear sometime in June.  Great Circle, a.k.a. Edgewood, will be doing construction work on a two-story office building, gymnasium and parking. NEW BUSINESS Joe Fichter brought to the table a street safety/repair issue. A section of Big Bend at Music Folk and the WG Animal Hospital has sunk. It has affected the adjacent sidewalk and street curbing. Mara Perry will pass the information along to the Public Works Department. Joe Fichter pointed out the letter to the editor in the Webster-Kirkwood Times complaining about the brown color choice of the repainted Old Orchard apple sculptures and questioning why they weren’t painted red. Mara Perry said the Parks and Recreation Department handled the repainting of the apples. Angel Venegoni made a motion to go into an Executive Closed Session regarding personnel per Missouri Statute 610.021 (3). Motion was seconded by Robert Weber and unanimously approved. ADJOURNED Meeting adjourned at 8:45 AM. NEXT MEETING The next meeting will be held on May 10, 2016 at 8:00 AM – City Hall.