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5. HRSR 06-04-2007ITEM # 5. ver MEMORANDUM TO: Housing & Redevelopment Authority FROM: Heidi Steinmetz, Assistant Director of Economic Development ~~ DATE: June 4, 2007 SUBJECT: Request to Utilize Marketing Funds for August 18"'Downtown Street Dance Attachment • River's Edge Downtown Business Association April 11, 2007 Meeting Minutes Background Last August, the HRA authorized a contribution toward the 2006 River's Edge Downtown Business Association block party in the amount of $2,000. In addition, the HRA authorized a contribution up to $2,000 toward a grand opening special event to be held in 2007 upon downtown construction completion. Issue As noted in the attached River's Edge meeting minutes, the group is planning another block party/street dance for August 18, 2007. Fxed McCoy of McCoy's Pub will be at the HRA meeting to make a formal request to utilize the remaining $2,000 towards the 2007 street dance. RiversEdge Meeting Minutes April 11, 2007 Present: Tony Mikols, Jeff Gongoll, Heidi Steinmetz, Wendy Simenson, Sharon Hovorka, Bill Houlton, Jim Rudolph, Dave Rymanowski, Ross Demant (Parks), Patrick Grace(ER Arts Alliance) Treasurer's Report: $2335.35 in the treasury Secretary's Report: Accepted addendum to minutes clarifying that the King Ave Lot has been posted no parking 2AM to 6AM. Minutes accepted as changed. Old Business: City Update Heidi told us that the buildings were proceeding on schedule. Parking Task Force: Dave Rymanowski told us that the Parking Focus Group's recommendations were presented to the City Council at its Apri19, 2007 meeting. The parking changes are being made in anticipation of the opening of new businesses in June in the new buildings downtown. Dave told us that interested retail tenants were put off by their perception that there was not enough parking close to the available spaces. The Council unanimously approved the following recommendations: Reduce parking time limits on street and in the King Avenue lot. Enforce weekday and overnight parking regulations. Relocate downtown resident and overnight guest parking to city lots north of Highway 10 by free permit. Limit issuance of employee permits for the King Ave lots to 150percent of available permits) Issue permits by application quarterly at a rate of $10 per month starting with one per business property owner, then using a round robin approach. Provide some communications to promote employee use of safe and available parking location alternative. Council agreed to buy one parking boot for enforcement of unpaid parking tickets (Each unpaid parking ticket is $24. The court doesn't send it to collections unless it is $26 or higher.) The Council decided against the purchase of emergency pull-posts at this time. The parking regulation and permit system will be re-evaluated quarterly. Cones will be placed in the crosswalks on Highway 10 and Jackson Ave to remind auto traffic to yield to pedestrians in cross walks. The Bank of Elk River has been parking across highway 10 for sometime now and the cones on Main Street have helped them feel safer. The City Council directed to the parking focus group to research building a ramp downtown. Ramps are very expensive to fund and there were questions on whether there would be a charge to park in the ramp. Ross Demant has been planning the events to take place in the new downtown park. The park should be able to seat 200 people on the stone seats. Additional seating will be available on the grass on the side of the seats, on the platform at street level and behind the stage. There is not a sound system in the park, but there is electrical. Tony asked if the Park would be lit at night. The first concert will be held on June 21St. Performing will be Bill Isles and the concert is being sponsored by First National Bank of Elk River. He said that the City will be providing signage for lots indicating that parking will be available in the Bank's lots after business hours for concerts. Hopefully that will help keep the lot behind Daddy'Os available for their customers. June 28th the Killer Hayseeds will be performing. He said they are looking at having movies in the park every other week in the fall. Ross requested that we provide feedback to him or the parks department on how it goes. There will be Artist Booths at the performances. He didn't want to compete with downtown restaurants so no food will be sold at the events. He also said that they are conceptualizing an "Elk River Days" to be held downtown the summer of 2008. Ross also told us about the Farmers Market that will be held at Lake Orono on Thursdays from 3 to 7. They are planning for 12 to 20 vendors per week. He would like to see the Market moved downtown next summer if possible. The challenge is that some of the vendors sell out of the back of their trucks and they will need some place that for them to set up that can accommodate their vehicles. Planters Downtown: Meryl knows where she wants the pots put. Heidi said she would talk to Phil about contacting us before the pots are dropped off and also to discuss the possibility of getting more pots. Connecting to ArtSoup: Wendy introduced Patrick Grace, the new executive of the Elk River Area Arts Alliance. ArtSoup will be held June 23 and 24, 2007. Patrick told us that there will be a fundraiser on Saturday, June 23rd in the evening. He also said that ads are available in the program book that will be given out at ArtSoup. He suggested that if we fill a page that we can advertise the sidewalk sale in our ad. The Kyle Baker Band, a local band, will open the show followed by a film by an independent film maker. We will be having a downtown sidewalk sale those days (and probably Friday June 22 also). Wendy has found a horse drawn trolley to provide rides between downtown and ArtSoup. The cost is $1200 for the two days of ArtSoup. It was moved and seconded that RiversEdge could pay $500 out of our treasury to help cover the costs. The motion passed. It was suggested that it would be nice if we could find more art to display downtown during ArtSoup. Tony suggested an Easel with Art Soup on the Bank of Elk River's downtown branch. Street Dance/SK Run August 18th: No info was presented at the meeting. New Business: Heidi said that she was told by Bill Maertz that there would be bike racks installed downtown behind Bumper to Bumper. The meeting was adjourned at gam.