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HomeMy WebLinkAbout5-20-09 Downtown Business Improvement District Minutes Downtown Business Improvement District Board Meeting Minutes 5/20/2009 Present : Eric Bowman, Mike Grant, Dan Harding, Dan Himsworth, Ileana Indreland, Buck Taylor, Kaaren Jacobson, and Chris Naumann Absent : Mike Basile Eric Bowman calls the meeting to order. Chris informed the Board that Mike Grant was unanimously appointed to the BID Board member on May 18, 2009. The Board officially welcomes Mike. No Public comments Minutes ACTION: Eric Bowman motioned to accept the minutes from April 2009. Dan Himsworth seconded the motion. All voted in favor. Financial Report Chris noted that the only financial activity was that associated with the Maintenance program since April’s financial report. He indicated that he would go over the year-to-date expenses as part of the budget discussion. Program Director’s Report Upcoming Events: th Friday, May 29 from 5-6:30- Parking Garage Grand Opening/Ribbon Cutting –, ribbon cutting ceremony, free food and refreshments from MacKenzie River Pizza and Leaf and Bean st Sunday, May 31 from 4-5:30- Downtown Healing Celebrations –. Chris to give more details thnd Friday, June 12 6-8pm - Art Walks – First one, then every 2 Friday through September th Friday, June 19 5-6:30pm - DBA Social at the Golden Rule Building ndth Thursday, July 2 - Music on Main –same location as last…every Thursday through August 20 thth Friday, July 17 and 18 9am to 6pm - Crazy Days th Sunday, August 16 9am–3pm – Cruisin’ on Main Car Show on Main Street from Rouse to Willson Other Items: - Membership Drive and Directory re-print in July - Recent website updates with video clips of downtown business owners …visit www.downtownbozeman.org Executive Director’s Report Business Improvement District Board th May 20 2009 Downtown Disaster Update In light of the Montana Legislature’s denial of a disaster clean-up appropriation, the City of Bozeman established a Disaster Clean-up Loan Fund to facilitate timely action at the explosion site. The City Commission approved a $300,000 loan on Monday, May 18, 2009. The money to be loaned will come from the following sources: ? $50,000 from the City General Fund ? $50,000 from a Northwestern Energy contribution ? $110,000 from the City's Housing Revolving Loan Fund ? $90,000 from the City's Economic Development Revolving Loan Fund The property owners have awarded a bid to an excavation contractor to clean the entire site as on project. The COB has issued a demolition permit contingent on stabilizing the standing buildings directly to the east and west of the site. The start date of the clean-up project has yet to be announced. A Downtown Healing Celebration will be held at the disaster site the afternoon of Sunday, May 31, 2009. The celebration will consist of a community walk originating at several city parks proceeding to Main Street. A Healing Ceremony will be held in front of the explosion site and will be performed by members of the Gallatin Valley Interfaith Association. There has been considerable interest in installing a plywood wall attached to the existing chain-link fence to conceal the disaster site. It has been proposed that local artists then paint the plywood with a mural, perhaps commemorative in design. I have agreed to coordinate COB and property owner approval for the installation of the plywood. After that, members of the community have agreed to arrange for the plywood to be donated and installed for free. Other individuals have expressed interest in orchestrating the mural aspect of the project. Downtown Improvement Plan The LMN consulting team has provided the advisory committee with an outline for the draft Downtown Improvement Plan. The outline was based upon the predetermined plan objectives and the preliminary findings from the stakeholder and public comments gathered by the team. The initial concepts and objectives have been summarized and posted on the Plan page of www.downtownbozeman.org. Members of the LMN team will be in Bozeman June 17-18, 2009 to present the draft plan to the Advisory Committee and City officials. The draft plan will be released to the public following these initial reviews. After several weeks of public review and comments, the team will revise the draft into final form, which will in turn be presented to the Partnership in late July. The plan will then make its way through the City of Bozeman adoption process with the Planning Board and City Commission. Parking Garage Update The Bridger Park Garage Grand Opening will be held at 5:00pm Friday May 29, 2009 at the northwest corner of the facility. The ceremony will include a ribbon cutting and a short presentation. Following the ceremony hors‘d oeuvres and beverages will be served during a community social. Currently, Qwest is completing their overdue reconfiguration of the phone lines in the alley. Completion nd of this work is scheduled for May 22. Once Qwest is finished, the dumpsters will be moved from the street to the stalls in the alley and the surface will be paved with asphalt. The garage is now home to just over 100 monthly permit holders. Discussion and Decision Items Flower Program Sponsorships Chris reminded that board that last year we collected $5000 in flower sponsorships, which equated 25 sponsors. This year 13 sponsors have agreed to support the flower program. Chris th informed the group that by May 20 last year 12 sponsors had been secured and although he felt a “bit behind” this year, sponsorships are on par with last year. Full-time Maintenance Program Update Chris informed the group that he hired Josh Minagla as the full-time BID maintenance employee. He added that Josh is a Bozeman native who lives two blocks from downtown. Josh has an eye for detail, is articulate and presentable, and most importantly truly cares about downtown. Josh is in his final year at MSU pursuing his degree in Construction Engineering and th has several years of landscaping experience. Josh will start working on Tuesday, May 26. Chris also confirmed that he would be purchasing a used Ford F250 with heavy-duty suspension as the BID Maintenance truck. He had the truck inspected at Straightaway Motor which did not reveal any major mechanical issues. FY2010 Draft Budget Chris presented the draft budget for FY2010 to the board. He began by reviewing the anticipated FY2009 year-end expenses and revenues, noting in particular: revenues were $5000 below budget due to lower than expected sponsorship funds; spending under half of the budgeted amount on the maintenance program; and program expenses totaled $2000 less than budgeted. FY2009 anticipated net income would be in excess of $11,000. Chris reminded the group that he will be using the net income funds to purchase the truck and watering equipment which he expects to be around $5000 total, leaving a carry over cash balance of approximately $6500. For FY2010, Chris proposed no increase to the BID Assessment of $114,000. He projects total revenues of $121,750. The FY2010 budget would include an increase the Partnership Management Fee to $63,000. He explained that in FY2009 he had budgeted the office sub- lease income into the Partnership revenue calculations. Considering the difficulties in consistently leasing that space, he decided that it was not prudent to count on the lease monies as Partnership revenue. Instead, he proposed increasing the management fee for all members while still actively seeking to lease the space. In the event that a lease generates FY2010 profit for the Partnership, the profit would be redistributed to the member organizations at year-end. The board concurred that this was a more reasonable approach considering the unpredictable nature of sublease income. The FY2010 Maintenance Program payroll costs would be $26,370 including wages and taxes for one full-time employee and one part-time person. Program expenses for next year would be considerably less than FY2009 due to the elimination of the flower-watering contract, thus totaling $29,950. The FY2010 budget would leave a $1930 year-end net income. The board discussed that the BID is enhancing programs by being fiscally efficient thus minimizing or, in this case, eliminating any increases to the property owner assessment. ACTION: Dan Himsworth motioned to accept the BID FY2010 budget as presented. Ileana Indreland seconded the motion. There was no further discussion. All voted in favor. Chris stated that he would prepare a BID Work Plan based on the approved budget and have that for the board’s review at the June meeting. He also said he would provide a FY2009 STIP report and a FY2010 STIP budget for the board’s consideration. Dan Himsworth asked about the schedule to repave the downtown alleys. Chris said he would inquire with the City and send an update via e-mail to the board in the coming weeks. With no new or old business to discuss, the meeting was adjourned.