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5.3. HRSR 08-07-2007ITII~I ~ 5.3. ver MEMORANDUM TO: Housing & Redevelopment Authority FROM: Catherine Mehelich, Director of Economic DATE: August 7, 2006 Development ~~~~/ SUBJECT: Consider Making Contribution toward Downtown Marketing Special Event for 2006 and 2007 Attachments • River's Edge Meeting July 12, 2006 Meeting Minutes and August 9, 2006 Agenda Background Staff has been working with the River's Edge Downtown Business Association to assist in additional marketing of the downtown businesses during the construction period. The staff report from the Assistant Director of Economic Development outlines the recent and ongoing marketing efforts being provided. Issue As noted in the attached River's Edge meeting minutes and upcoming agenda, the group is planning a sidewalk sales event and downtown block party to be held Saturday, August 26, 2006. Staff has been meeting with Fred McCoy of McCoy's Pub to discuss details of the event, city application and approval process, and to discuss street staging and signage needs. It is anticipated that the City Council will consider approval of the special event request and liquor license extension at its August 14`h meeting. The special event for the block party will likely require several city services, of which Mr. McCoy has requested the city's contribution, specifically: • Police security (2 FT officers) $750 • Barricades/Signage/Street Cleaning $450 (labor & materials) • Portable bathrooms $500 Total $1,700 Recommendation In accordance with the HRA's goal to assist in marketing the downtown businesses during this construction phase, staff recommends the HRA consider making a contribution toward the block party special event up to $2,000. In addition, staff recommends the HRA consider authorizing a contribution up to $2,000 toward a grand opening special event to be held in 2007 upon construction completion. Rivers Edge Meeting Agenda Wednesday, August 9, 2006 ********8AM Chamber of Commerce Meeting Room ********* Treasurer's Report Jim Simpson Secretary's Report Patti Hipsag Old Business City Update Heidi Steinmetz Revitalization Plan Update Marketing Downtown During Construction Road opening and closing Summer Event August 26, 2006 Street Dance Fred McCoy Sidewalk Sale Wendy Simenson Parking Lot Enforcement Times New Business Fall/Winter Events Financial Aid?? Businesses Changes You should have already received the minutes. If you haven't please let Wendy at Kemper Drug know. 763-441-1353 Please also let Wendy know if you would like to be included in the promotional piece for the sidewalk sale and street dance the Weekend of August 26, 2006 please drop off or fax your information to Kemper Drug (Fax 441-9004) attention Wendy. Rivers Edge Meeting Minutes Wednesday, July 12, 2006 The Meeting was called to order at 3:30 PM at McCoys Pub. Tony Mikols, Chris Knutson, Garrett Jordahl, Karen Attia, Roger Hebeisen, Wendy Simenson, Fred McCoy, Lori Biel, Brad Rolfe, Scott Clark, Heidi Steinmetz, Peter Kimball were in attendance. Treasurer's Report: There is $4004.76 in our treasury Secretary's Report: The minutes from the last meeting were not available to vote on. Old Business: Revitalization plan update: Scott Clark told us that the 3 groups doing construction downtown will be meeting together weekly to assess and coordinate construction vehicles coming in and out of construction sites. At times of increased traffic the police will have staff available to direct traffic. It is expected that some days there maybe in excess of 200 trucks coming in and out. City Staff will be working with construction companies in finding the best locations for truck staging. The northerly fence line that was put around Jackson Square was put up prior to MnDot approval and was put too close to Hwy 10. The fence will be moved in 4 feet from the curb to allow for safe walking along Hwy 10. In 2 weeks, Jackson Square construction will be particularly noisy as there will be lots of trucks, digging and shoring of the property. The City is looking at possibly starting the Park downtown in September. They would work on it for 2 months in the fall and finalize in the spring. It is expected that each building construction project will take 12 to 16 months for completion. Scott was asked about the likelihood of Main Street being reopened prior to the August 11 `h date. He thought that the buildings were going on as scheduled but that they were looking at the possibility of moving up some of the utility work on the street so that the street wouldn't be opened only to be reclosed again with the concomitant needed to retrain all of the drivers to use alternate routes again. Scott indicated that the City would keep Rivers Edge informed of the status of the Main Street reroute. Rivers Edge members discussed that leaving Main Street closed would be detrimental for existing downtown businesses. If you have concerns with the downtown construction or traffic flow and would like to talk to someone at the city about them please contact Cathy Mehelich Phone: 763.635.1041 Fax: 763.635.1090 Email: cmehelich(a~ci.elk-river.mn.us and specify whether you are calling representing your personal concerns or those of the Rivers Edge Group. (Also if you get emails from the Rivers Edge Group that you disagree with, please let us know so that we can better represent downtown businesses.) Marketing Plan: Heidi told us that the coupon flyer was distributed in the Star News on June 28. She passed out copies to the group. Additional copies were made and will be distributed at City Hall, The Chamber of Commerce, Handke Center and other locations. Wendy asked if it would be possible for the HRA's budget for next year to include funding for a similar piece 6 months from now. Wendy also asked about the next marketing piece. Heidi indicated that it would probably be what is being termed as the "Vision Piece," which will provide images what the finished project will be like. Heidi also talked about the downtown promo commerical, which is being played numerous times a week on government access Channel 12. Heidi will continue to send out more public notices, press releases, Q&A newsletters and providing updates on the City's Website. Heidi also told us that the city has been having discussions with the Building Owners of Bumper to Bumper and the building that was formerly occupied by Creative Genius to see what the potential for the City to buy those buildings and increase the size of the parking lot. There have been no discussions between the City and Elk River Meats. Street Dance/ Sidewalk Sale: Fred is working with the Rivers Edge Group, The City of Elk River and Sunshine Depot on holding a street dance downtown on Saturday August 26. Scott Clark told us that we had to turn our detailed request into the City soon so that the event could be presented to the City Council for approval and so that Terry Maurer and Police Chief Beahen could respond to individual issues. Heidi mentioned that she and Scott met with Jesse, Fred's representative for the street dance, on June 19th and provided him with a list of items that he would need to submit to the City. Thoughts are that the band would play from the top of the park. We would need a stage. Wendy talked to a company that would rent, deliver and set up the stage for between $500 and $1500 depending on the size and amenities. She also said that the Chamber used a flat bed trailer for the 4th of July that worked well at less expense than a stage. We would need to get insurance for the event and the bars would need to get liquor extension permits and insurance to sell alcohol outside. We would also need to set up a system for ensuring that under age people couldn't get alcohol. Wendy said that we will schedule a sidewalk sale Friday August 25 and Saturday August 26th and that possibly we could use the stage for entertainment during the day. A motion was made and seconded to contribute $500.00 from Rivers Edge Treasury to the event to help cover the cost of holding this event -stage, advertising, band. There was discussion about the kind of music and the make up of the people who would come to the street dance based on the type of event. Fred will take this into consideration when looking for bands to play. The motion passed to make the funds available for the street dance. Flower Pots are all planted thank you to Meryl Gisselquist for her hard work on this. Next year we need to come up with a plan to get them planted so that she is not doing all the work! Please make sure to thank her when you see her! There was some discussion if we will need to get more pots for downtown as the construction is finished we will have more places to put them. New Business: Parking Lot Enforcement Times. Brad Rolfe, representing the Police Department, discussed the efforts that his department is making to make traffic run smoothly with the transition to Jackson Ave being made one way and increases in truck traffic downtown. Fred asked Brad why the officers were directing people away from downtown. Brad indicated that was not true. The signing is being made very clear how to access HWY 10 east and west from Downtown. Police officers have been positioned at key points to make sure that motorists understand the changes. As with all traffic control changes, there has been a little bit of confusion but the problems are being ironed out and we are seeing a lot of traffic trying to make u turns at the corner of Jackson Ave and Main Street. The no parking between 2AM and 6AM is not being enforced at this time because some businesses employees need to be parked in the lot at that time. He discussed the need for an ordinance that is clear cut and enforceable. We discussed different language for the ordinance. Heidi asked that Rivers Edge submit ordinance language change requests to the City in writing. Wendy and Garrett and Karen will come up with alternate language for the ordinance that addresses the concerns: cars parked that interfere with plowing of the lot in the winter, resident vehicles being parked in high traffic customer parking, hours of enforcement. We were told that one of the vehicles parking in the first row behind the brick block is a mother with 2 small children who works late at night and it is an issue for her to get them in the building safely. (editorial - we need to make sure that when the apartments are rented the landlords let their potential tenants be made aware of what accommodations have been made for resident parking in the King Avenue lot. I would assume that the same information will be provided to the renters of the Jackson Square apartments to prevent this from being an issue in the future). Keeping downtown looking nice during construction: Wendy voiced concerns about the grass growing on the sidewalk along the King Ave parking on Hwy 10. Phil Hals is who we need to contact to talk about this concern. Brad Rolfe told us that on the City of Elk Rivers Website there is a "Request Partners" program on the main menu that routes requests to the appropriate departments in the city. http://www.ci.elk-river.mn.us/index.as~ Businesses Changes: Haberdashery has moved out of downtown. Arties has been sold to one of his employees. Natural Expressions Florists and the Nook will be closing in November. Thank you to Bob Brown for rehanging our Historic Downtown Sign that blew down by the Chamber of Commerce. Other New Business: Lori Biel from the Elk River Area Arts Alliance told us that Art Soup will be held at Handke Stadium on June 24th and June 25th 2007. www.elkriverart.org The Meeting was adjourned at 4:30PM Our Next meeting will Wednesday, August 8, 2006 at Sam at the Chamber of Commerce meeting room. Please let Wendy at Kemper Drug (441-1353) know if you are planning to participate in the sidewalk sale or if there are any special events you are going to hold at your business the weekend of August 26th so that I can put together an ad and door signs advertising the event. If you have ideas for the planning of activities with the street dance, music or entertainment on the stage or want to plan a fun run or something else that day talk to Fred or Wendy and we will have a planning meeting.