Old Orchard Business District Advisory Commission

Old Orchard Special Business District Advisory Commission MEETING MINUTES APPROVED MEETING DATE: Tuesday, October 10, 2017 LOCATION: City Hall CALLED TO ORDER: 8:04 AM MEETING ADJOURNED: 8:53 AM NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, November 14, 2017 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 John Barr X Steve Zielinski X Frank Janoski, Council Liaison X Mara Perry, City Liaison X Also in attendance: Fran Sudekum – Administrative Support APPROVAL OF MINUTES Motion to approve the September minutes as was made by Angel Venegoni, seconded by Robert Weber, motion was unanimously approved. PARKING • Agreement with Bethesda regarding the strip of parking spaces behind the businesses on the north side of Big Bend (North Old Orchard east) as City public parking is signed and parking ordinance approved. Parking restriction signs will go up this week. • Signs for the existing public parking lot off of N. Old Orchard for employee and patron parking will also go up quickly. TRICK OR TREATING • Trick or Treating event takes place on the Saturday before Halloween. Mara Perry provided participant display posters and asked Commission members to take them to their business peers. The event is on the Explore Webster Groves and Old Orchard Facebook pages. • Old Webster, Crossroads, and Crossroads are also participating. HOLIDAY PLANNING • Holiday Events – November o Saturday, November 18th from 3 to 5 PM was picked as the day to hold Old Orchard’s Holiday event. o Angela Foley is not available to organize and run this year’s Holiday event in Gazebo Park. She did provide some suggestions based on last year’s event: ▪ Weather affects what Santa is able to bring to the event, for example, the petting zoo can’t be a part of the event if the weather is cold or rainy. ▪ Lack of support and volunteers negatively affects the success of the event. ▪ Focus on Santa, the tree lighting, and music from the high school. ▪ Holiday decorations should be put up in the park in addition to those put up by the Parks & Rec Department. o It was suggested perhaps “Gazebo Series” Amanda may be interested and/or available to run the event. Mara will reach out to her and offer $300; however, volunteers will still be needed to make the event happen. o Mara will also reach out to Santa and see if he’s available and offer $500. o Mara will reach out to the high school and/or Hixson for the musical component. o Based on last year, the cost of the event is approximately $1,000. • Holiday Events – December o Santas on the Loose Chamber of Commerce Event ▪ The Chamber of Commerce will once again have the Santas on the Loose 5K run event starting and finishing in Old Orchard. Mara reviewed the activity permit with Commission members. Due to street working underway, the route has been adjusted this year, but will still start and stop in Gazebo Park. ▪ Weber’s Front Row does a “Breakfast with Santa” event that day as well. o Cookie Walk coordination will need to take place. • Holiday Advertising - Webster-Kirkwood Times holiday package includes: o One Holiday Gift and Recipe Guide which comes out November 17 and would include a full-page Old Orchard ad with 9 participating Old Orchard businesses. o Three Holiday “businesses gang” page ads which come out on November 10, December 1, and December 15; all are also full-page with 12 participating businesses. o One Small Business Saturday ad which comes out on November 24 and is a half-page ad. o The District cost subsidizes the ads and individual Old Orchard business owners pay their portion. The District uses the borders in all to promote the events during the season. o This total cost of the District’s portion for everything is $2,430; a slight increase of $86 over last year. o All Commission members agreed to subsidize the holiday ad package. DISTRICT BANNERS • Now that the Farmers’ Market has closed and its 23 banners removed, the District needs additional banners to replace them. The cost to purchase 23 new banners to match the existing banners is $943. • Old Webster has ordered new Winter banners; Mara shared the design with Commission members. • The existing Old Orchard winter banners are getting old, perhaps this is a good opportunity to get new ones for the entire District instead of just replacing the 23 Farmers’ Market banners. • Commission members decided to go with new Winter banners for the whole District using the same design used by Old Webster. A discussion was held whether to put “Old Orchard” on the banners vs. “Webster Groves.” Ultimately, it was decided to put “Webster Groves” on the Winter banners. • It was suggested to possibly get together with those in the Old Webster District when it came time to replace the Summer banners to discuss whether both districts’ banners would just say “Webster Groves” instead of the name of the district. • Money from the advertising budget would be used to cover the cost. The new banners would be available around the first of November. • MOTION: Angel Venegoni made a motion to use the current budget to purchase new Winter banners for the entire District and if necessary use the District reserves to cover any amount not covered by the budget. Bob Weber seconded the motion and it was unanimously approved. STREETSCAPE PROJECT • The East-West Gateway Council of Governments has sent a letter to the City of Webster Groves confirming the approval of the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP) grant for Old Orchard’s Streetscape project on the north side of Big Bend from Oakwood to Dale Avenues. Public Works is getting the project ready for when the federal grant money comes in. The projected total cost for the project is $309,000. The City match of $97K will come out of the City’s budget. CITY UPDATE • There will be a preservation lecture series about North Webster. • New nail salon in Old Webster is almost finished. • Work continues on the Olive + Oak secondary space in Old Webster. • Work also continues on the new landscape company location on Watson Road. • The proposed development of the former YMCA location has been resubmitted for a three-story development with no commercial usage; the Ridge House Apartments. • The final reading for the development at the former Auto Beauty location for a brew pub, rooftop restaurant and event space, a microbrewery, and office space will take place at the next City Council meeting. NEXT MEETING Tuesday, November 14, 2017 at 8:00 AM – City Hall. ADJOURNED Meeting adjourned at 8:53 AM