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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-04-14Historic Downtown Bowmanville Business Centre (BIA) Board of Management Meeting Minutes Tuesday April 14, 2020; 6:30pm Virtual Meeting due to COVID-19 pandemic Present: Edgar Lucas, Chair Laura Holmes, Secretary Gerri Lucas, Treasurer Justin Barry Cathy Holmes Absent: Carrie Hooper Ron Hooper Delegations Present: None The meeting was called to order by the Chair. 1. Presentation by Delegations The Chair recognized that no delegations were present. 2. Adoption of Minutes Moved by L. Holmes, seconded by C. Holmes THAT the minutes of the meeting of March 10, 2020 be approved as circulated. CARRIED 3. Business Arisine from Previous Minutes (a) Spring Street Pole Banners Revised design proofs presented. Moved by G. Lucas, seconded by L. Holmes THAT version 2 design proof 3 be selected and the order be placed. CARRIED 4. Correspondence Correspondence was received from i. Sarah Allin, MOC, regarding the Public Art Project with OMAFRA update (via email) ii. Jamie Nowe, Digital Service Squad member for DMS program, regarding remote availability during COVID-19 pandemic (via email) iii. Amanda Tapp, Planner MOC, seeking feedback on mobile pop-up street vendor pilot project proposal (via email) iv. Municipality of Clarington — Press release about waiving tax penalties V. Nicole Zambri, Planner MOC, regarding notice of zoning bylaw passing (via email) Historic Downtown Bowmanville 2 Business Centre (BIA) Moved by G. Lucas, seconded by J. Barry THAT the correspondence be received for information. THAT items ii., and iv. be distributed to BIA members. THAT a letter of response be issued on items iii., and v. CARRIED 5. Treasurer's Report The Treasurer presented the following: i. $192 467.32 in current account. ii. Maplefest vendor refund cheques have been issued iii. Edward Jones investment is being arranged Moved by C. Holmes, seconded by L. Holmes THAT the Treasurer's Report be adopted as presented. CARRIED 6. Directors' Reports (a) Council Liaison — R. Hooper: No report. (b) Events — C. Holmes: APRIL 2020 Reported that Meet The Easter Bunny, Girls Night Out, and Maplefest have been cancelled to date and communication with all stakeholders has occurred. Food Truck Friday and Summerfest cancellations will be announced soon. Decisions on the fate of the remainder of scheduled events are pending. A request was made to the Director of Operations to not issue any permits for large community events on the dates of our remaining events — August 22 and October 17 — as these will be important for business recovery if restrictions are lifted. The chocolate easter bunnies purchased for the Meet The Easter Bunny event were donated to charities — Salvation Army and Lakeridge Health - and gifted to some downtown businesses to include with customer purchases. Disappointingly, one business included the bunnies in a gift package to profit off our donation. (c) Membership Relations —J. Barry: Reported that Endivine Grill opened only a day or two before the shutdown began. Bad Boy Decals has closed. Many businesses are trying to offer services and shopping virtually and contactless pick up or delivery options during the shutdown. Suggested that business owners should be encouraged to regularly update their window displays even if they remain closed. Historic Downtown Bowmanville 3 Business Centre (BIA) (d) Streetscape — G. Lucas: APRIL 2020 Reported that summer baskets are on order. Contact will be made with the contractor regarding watering services to see if services can continue. Winter baskets have been removed. (e) Communications— (vacant): L. Holmes reported that she has temporarily assumed the Communications tasks while the position is vacant. This was necessary as critical information about the COVID-19 pandemic needed to be shared with members. Since the crisis broke, multiple emails are circulated almost daily to BIA members. However, due to time constraints only emails that can be easily forwarded are sent out such as those from CBOT, DMS, etc. It is not feasible to compose new messages to our members like the paid staff of Oshawa and Whitby are able to. (f) Website — L. Holmes: Reported that the website redevelopment plans have been shelved for the time being and can be revisited once the pandemic restrictions are eased. Cancellation notices for Meet The Easter Bunny, Girls Night Out, and Maplefest are posted. Vendor application forms for Maplefest, Summerfest, and Food Truck Friday are disabled and removed. The business directory is grossly out of date and will only be addressed during the redevelopment. The cost and time resources required to make these changes to the existing website would be astronomical. The Instagram account is being used to notify the public of what businesses in Bowmanville are operating and in what capacity. Posts and daily updates to the Instagram stories feature displays what our member businesses are offering. Other area BIAS have full-time staff responsible for their social media accounts and were shocked to hear that this is being done so well and by a volunteer. That said, it has been a huge time commitment to keep this updated and not something that is sustainable. (g) Media Relations — C. Hooper: No Report. 7. New Business (a) Durham Tourism Shop Local project L. Holmes has represented Bowmanville for the past 4 weeks at virtual meetings hosted by Durham Tourism involving all BIAs in Durham. When the pandemic struck, Durham Tourism pivoted and began promoting business instead of tourism through its social media and website. It is spearheading a shop local project that will involve a dedicated website and marketing campaign under the banner of 'Downtowns of Durham'. The planned launch date is April 27. Each BIA or business district will have its own tab on the website featuring information about the downtown and the BIA, as well as business listings for those businesses that are operating in some capacity and a map feature. A form is under Historic Downtown Bowmanville 4 Business Centre (BIA) APRIL 2020 development that will allow individual business owners to submit their information to be included on the site. Once available this will be circulated to our members. At time of launch, the site will focus on only those businesses that are operating. As business reopens to the public, the site will shift to feature all businesses in the downtowns of Durham. Over the long term, each BIA will be responsible for upkeep of its own tab and listings. Durham Tourism has warned that this could be a labour intensive project for BIAs and business districts that do not have dedicated staff. (b) Updates from task force meetings with Mayor The Chair was invited to represent the Bowmanville BIA. These weekly meetings include the Mayor, local councillors, MPs, and MPP, representatives from BIAs, and CBOT. Mostly, the meetings outline what is happening at the Provincial and Federal levels. The Mayor is asking for ideas how the Municipality will be able to assist business. The Chair raised concerns about some landlords threatening evictions of commercial tenants for failure to pay rent. Others have mentioned that areas outside of Clarington have experienced vandalism and looting. (c) Durham Region BIAs The Executive Directors of the Oshawa and Whitby BIAs sit on a Regional Task Force about the response to COVID-19. A letter of request on behalf of all eight BIAs in Durham was sent to Durham Regional Council about assistance for small business by way of committing 25% of total BIA levies to Municipalities, who would in turn reduce tax levy burden on property owners by the corresponding amount. Since this was a time sensitive matter, the Board of Management voted to endorse this letter outside of normal procedures. The letter was submitted to Regional Council on March 23, 2020. Moved by L. Holmes, seconded by C. Holmes THAT Municipal Council and leadership be asked to support this request and will be sent a copy of this letter. (d) Planning for Recovery Following COVID-19 Restrictions BluesBERRY Festival and/or Apple Festival will be very important for downtown business if restrictions are eased and these events can proceed as scheduled. Depending on when and how restrictions are eased, it may be possible to hold a shopping event similar to our Girls' Night Out event once businesses are able to reopen to the public. A suggestion was made to have a social media contest and provide gift certificates to be used at downtown Bowmanville businesses as prizes. This would encourage local residents to spend money in the downtown when business reopens. Concerns were raised about logistics of running the contest during distancing restrictions and about the Treasurer having to refund businesses. Overall, the idea was well received and should be given some more thought. The contest could be run closer to the time of business reopening. Historic Downtown Bowmanville 5 Business Centre (BIA) 8. Date of Next Meeting APRIL 2020 The next meeting of the Board of Management is scheduled to be held on Tuesday May 12, 2020 commencing at 6:30pm in Clarington Meeting Room 1-C, unless COVID-19 restrictions are still in place in which case the meeting will be held virtually. 9. Adiournment Moved by C. Holmes, seconded by J. Barry THAT the meeting adjourn. CARRIED The meeting adjourned at 7:40pm.