Old Orchard Business District Advisory Commission

Old Orchard Special Business District Advisory Commission MEETING MINUTES APPROVED MEETING DATE: Tuesday, November 12, 2019 LOCATION: City Hall CALLED TO ORDER: 8:05 AM MEETING ADJOURNED: 8:51 AM NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, December 10, 2019 NAME PRESENT ABSENT Joe Fichter, Chair X Angel Venegoni X Claire Winkler X Holland Saltsman X Robert Weber X John Barr X Steve Zielinski X Vacancy Vacancy Bud Bellomo, Council Liaison X Mara Perry, City Liaison X Also in attendance: Police Officer Ahmar Rasool – WGPD Traffic Unit Fran Sudekum – Administrative Support Approval of Minutes Motion to approve the September minutes as was made by Holland Saltsman, seconded by Bob Weber motion was unanimously approved. Fall Event Feedback • Civil Alchemy’s Fall Festival had to change their event from Saturday to Sunday due to the heavy rain forecasted for Saturday and many of their participating vendors, bands, and none of the food trucks could make the change; so, the event was a little smaller than originally planned. • The weather was very good on Sunday however, and the event saw a good turnout. • Real Leaf CBD saw many of the event’s patrons; they had a good day. • Next year, organizers would like to use District restaurants at the event instead of food trucks. • Organizers are also discussing the potential of expanding the festival to a District- wide event. Page 1of 3 Holiday Plans • Saturday, November 28th: Small Business Saturday takes place. • Saturday, December 7th: Santas on the Loose, organized and put on by the Webster et al. Chamber takes place. Brickwork in Gazebo Park should be finished prior to Santas on the Loose. Holiday lights are on the evergreen tree and ready to light the evening of the same day 7th. Santa’s Mailbox will be placed in the Gazebo. • Sunday, December 8th: The Webster Cookie Walk takes place. Fran Sudekum will solicit Old Orchard businesses to participate. Mara Perry will put a map together. Webster-Kirkwood Times Ads • Approved in the budget is the District’s subsidy for the Webster-Kirkwood Times Ad • Holiday Package; three gang-page ads with District-specific holiday information along the top and side borders as in the past (November 15th, December 6th, and December 13th issues) and the November 22nd Gift Guide issue. • Also approved in the budget is allocations for additional ads throughout the year which hasn’t yet been used. Will discuss a Spring ad at the January meeting. Rooftop Building Lighting • Additional installation of rooftop lighting did not move forward stoppage due to colder weather stoppage. Mara shared the maintenance issues that have occurred with the rooftop lights in the Old Webster District. • Dave Sanders would like to add his location to the rooftop lighting 50/50 list. • John Barr inquired when would building owners receive an invoice for their portion of the bill. Mara shared since none of the building owners have submitted payment for their agreed to portion, an invoice will need to be created and sent out. BDC Update • The Business Development Commission has a new chairperson and several new members. They reviewed their metrics and are getting the new members up to speed. • They’ve also been working on the city-wide holiday promotional plans; one of which is the printed Webster Wonderland Calendar Brochure is complete and has been distributed and is available to businesses. • The BDC has been encouraging businesses to decorate for the holidays and as part of that effort, the Old Webster District purchased candle lights for their upper-floor street-facing windows at an approximate cost of $1,500 with a 20% discount. Building owners, Old Webster Commission, members made the deliveries. Old Orchard doesn’t have many upper floor windows but could look at doing the same for next year; will add it as a discussion item on next year’s budget agenda. • the lights. • Also working on a GIS application for Webster Groves restaurants that works well on smart phones. It will be linked to the City’s website. Page 2of 3 Blue Permit Parking Spaces • The additional Blue Permit Parking on Bompart was approved by City Council. • Bud Bellomo observed early morning parking on Bompart where the new spaces will be for two days in a row and observed thirteen cars parked there; all were adults in casual attire, nine walked east on Lockwood and four walked west on Lockwood, none were wearing Nerinx Hall uniforms. City Update • Le Macaron in Old Webster will open soon; paperwork has been resolved. • A new non-retail business is opening on Big Bend in Old Orchard, Glow Candle. • Greenhouse Studios has purchased two buildings on Chamberlain in Old Orchard; the first floor of one of the buildings will be renovated for a violin studio on the first floor. • A nail salon will be moving into one of the spaces next to Blue Dahlia • The Elle on Lockwood’s construction is moving at a good pace. • Regions Bank’s stone and brick is going up. They will be splitting ownership of the lot between the bank and the retail building. • Construction continues on the project at the former Auto Beauty location in Old Webster. Their parking plan is looking at using valet parking which may also possibly be expanded into a District-wide valet parking application. • Guerrilla Street Food has not yet opened. They have all their required paperwork from the city completed. • Jiffy Lube at Laclede Station Road and Big Bend is cleaning up their CUP. • New construction at Hixson Middle School for the sixth-grade addition hopes to be starting in the spring. • John Barr has purchased the buildings where Krueger Pottery was located and would like to see those spaces have retail businesses. • The 2015 building codes will be adopted at the first City Council meeting in December. Commission Vacancies • Claire Winkler is retiring from Commerce Bank; her last Old Orchard Business District meeting will be December. She will also be stepping down from the Gazebo Series Organizing Committee. • In January 2020, the Commission will have three vacancies. All members are encouraged to recruit to fill the vacancies. It would be good to have someone from Webster University on the Commission. ADJOURNED Meeting adjourned at 8:51 AM. Page 3of 3