Old Webster Business District Advisory Commission

Old Webster Special Business District Advisory Commission MEETING MINUTES APPROVED MEETING DATE: Tuesday August 25, 2020 LOCATION: City Hall CALLED TO ORDER: 8:04 AM MEETING ADJOURNED: 9:01 AM NEXT MEETING: Tuesday, September 22, 2020 NAME PRESENT ABSENT Ron Clipp, Chair X Joe Rath X Mark Hinkle X Tim Delanty X Micki Hansel X Gary Schoenberger X Margaret Stevens X Bill Newhouse X Stacie Swederska X Emerson Smith, Council Liaison X Mara Perry, City Liaison X Also, in attendance: Fran Sudekum – Administrative Support APPROVAL OF MINUTES Motion to approve the July minutes was made by Joe Rath, seconded by Bill Newhouse, and unanimously approved. OLD BUSINESS • Old Webster Trade Association – The Trade Association is moving forward with plans for businesses to use their sidewalks for two activities. Dates and times have been decided. The first one is Fall/Oktober Fest themed and called Walktober Fest. It will be ongoing all weekend October 17 and 18 from 10AM to 5PM on Saturday and Noon to 4PM on Sunday. The other is a play on the outdoor winter street markets held in Europe and called Winter Market. It will be ongoing all weekend as well over the November 14 and 15 weekend with the same time schedule. If the weekends are successful, they could become annual sidewalk activities. Commission Members support the plans and with continued updates will reallocate existing budgeted funds for activities that were canceled, such as the Street Dance and the Open House, towards these new activities. 1 of 3 • Over-the-Street Banners – A discussion was held on purchasing over-the-street banners for the Walktober and Winter Market weekends to support the community. Four new banners would need to be purchased at approximately $2,000 with the intent to reused them in succeeding years. MOTION: Joe Rath made a motion to purchase four new over-the-street banners for $2,000. Two for the October weekend and two for the November weekend. The motion was seconded by Bill Newhouse and unanimously approved. • Rooftop Lighting – Bill Newhouse offered to help with the rooftop lighting project and contact Stribe Electric to move the project forward. Mara Perry will provide Bill with contact information. NEW BUSINESS • Holiday Bows and Garland – Mara Perry held up a large bow as an example of the ones that will be added to the lampposts along with the new garland and wanted to confirm approval of the size and style of the bow which fits the budgeted amount. The bows will be attached at the banners and the garland will wrap around the poles. The Parks Department asked whether the bows should be red or a dark blue. Members discussed the color choices and their pros and cons of the holiday appeal of the red vs. the post-holiday staying power of the blue. The garland comes down after the holidays and don’t require the use of the Public Works bucket truck to remove them; however, the bows require the bucket truck to reach them and are normally taken down at the same time the winter banners are taken down in February. A color choice vote was held and red was chosen by a count of 5 to 3. • December Activity – A discussion was held on ideas for a December activity. A continuation of the Winter Market concept is a possibility. Another outdoor idea was also put forth. Businesses could light up with holiday attire and have holiday window displays. Patrons could then “window shop” at their leisure all month in a holiday atmosphere and have a holiday-themed activity available when most traditional ones have been canceled this year. Businesses would each do their own focus. A possible addition could be hiding a holiday character in the window displays to be found when viewing; a play on Where’s Waldo. • Restaurant Use of Outdoor Spaces – A discussion was held on the various options and roadblocks to allow restaurants to expand their use of outdoor spaces: expanded sidewalk use into neighboring non-restaurant space, closing sections of various streets, use of parking spaces or the parking deck. Many restaurants have expanded the use of their sidewalk space. The City holds insurance for sidewalk dining but not for dining in the street. Options involving parking spaces and streets carry numerous roadblocks involving safety issues, the need to be consistent for all, negative impact to access for non-restaurant businesses in the closed off areas, daily logistical issues, additional equipment needs, additional insurance requirements, etc. 2 of 3 • Voices of Businesses – Mark Hinkle would like to gather business owners together and have open conversations on how we could come together to take steps to help make our community more inclusive. It’s possible to support both the Black Lives Matter movement and the Police Department. It’s not an either-or scenario. CITY UPDATE • SG Collaborative continues to have virtual open houses on the proposed development in North Old Webster. • The City is working on getting public comments before the City Council via Zoom. • Work is finishing up the text amendments for parking codes. • The second building on the Regions Bank site in Old Webster has asked to have a small coffee shop which was not in their original uses and will need to have an amendment to the ordinance to add that use. • Several 20-minute drop-off parking areas were designated in Old Webster to help with the curbside pickup activity businesses are doing in the current COVID-19 environment. Some of them have been removed; looking at it block by block and working with individual business owners where needed. • Union Studio is moving into a space in Old Orchard. • Union Bagel still plans to open in Crossroads. • The status of La Macaron in Old Webster is not known at this time. • The status of Firenza Pizza in Old Webster is not known at this time. NEXT MEETING Tuesday, September 22, 2020 at 8:00 AM via Zoom. 3 of 3