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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-11-09Historic Downtown Bowmanville Business Centre (BIA) Board of Management Meeting Minutes Tuesday November 9, 2021; 6:30pm Virtual Meeting due to COVID-19 pandemic Present: Edgar Lucas, Chair Laura Holmes, Secretary Gerri Lucas, Treasurer Cathy Holmes Ron Hooper Absent: Justin Barry Erin Kemp Delegations Present: Stephen Brake, Operations Director Bonnie Wrightman, Clarington Board of Trade The meeting was called to order by the Chair. 1. Presentation by Delegations a) Mr. Brake is the Director of Operations at the Municipality of Clarington. Councillor Hooper invited Mr. Brake to discuss the new blue box regulations and a maintenance co -share proposal. Currently, Region of Durham is responsible for blue box program. Starting in 2024 there will be a Province -wide producer -responsibility program and the Region will no longer be responsible. As the regulation is written, BIAS and small business are not included. Residential pick up will continue and this includes apartments within the BIA. Regulation aims to reduce waste by making producers responsible for paying for collection. Regional Council is looking at inclusion of BIAS and small businesses in the producer program and there may have to be some financial negotiations. Each year several students are hired from May until August to work in Operations and Parks/Rec/Roads etc. A report is going before Council for consideration looking at a proposal that would include a student hired to share maintenance duties between the 3 BIAs in Clarington. Cost is approximately $10 000 per student and the student works S days/week at 8 hr/day. Proposal would have the student in Bowmanville 2 days, Newcastle 2 days, and Orono 1 day. Work plan could be adjusted as necessary which may include drawing student to other areas if there is not enough work in the BIAS. The co -share amount will depend on how many BIAS enter into the agreement, the hours of work in the BIA, and the percentage of rebate that the Canada Student Summer Grant may provide for 2022. Mr. Brake will share any information that arises regarding the blue box collection and will report back to the BIA once Council reviews the co -share proposal. Historic Downtown Bowmanville 2 [date] Business Centre (BIA) b) Bonnie Wrightman from Clarington Board of Trade joining to discuss the "Shop Where You Live" campaign. Federal funding was filtered through the Ontario Chamber of Commerce. CBOT joined with Ajax -Pickering Board of Trade and Whitby Chamber for this funding and project. A few hundred thousand dollars was received for promotions in Durham Region. Includes print, digital, social media, bus and truck wraps, radio ads, branded bags, street teams, billboards. There will be a toolkit coming to help partners promote the program. Late November Friday or Saturday there will be a street team in downtown Bowmanville to hype up the program and spread the word. The program will run beyond the holidays. CBOT is also planning a 'Shop Clarington' campaign. Asks that the BIA share the information with business members once it becomes available. Would like to brainstorm some ideas about promotion downtown. Road banners, large signs, sidewalk decals, etc. 2. Adoption of Minutes Moved by R. Hooper, seconded by G. Lucas THAT the minutes of the meeting of October 12, 2021 be approved as circulated. CARRIED 3. Business Arising from Previous Minutes (a) Light Pole Receptacles & Holiday Lights The Chair reported that most of the receptacles are now repaired and that he will coordinate with Operations if more repairs are needed. The holiday lights are ordered and once they arrive will coordinate with support staff for install. 4. Correspondence Correspondence was received from i. Legislative Services regarding Veteran Parking GG-456-21 (via email) ii. Planning Services regarding notice of recommendation report on ADUs (via email) iii. Director of Finance requesting preliminary 2022 budget (via email) iv. Business owner regarding concerns about hosting Girls' Night Out received prior to event (via email) v. Oshawa Hydro regarding new Durham Broadband (via email) Moved by G. Lucas, seconded by R. Hooper THAT the correspondence be received for information. THAT a letter of response on item 4.iii. be sent stating that a status quo budget is expected. CARRIED Historic Downtown Bowmanville 3 [date] Business Centre (BIA) S. Treasurer's Report The Treasurer presented the following: i. EJ $100170, BMO $34077 Several invoices are expected in next few weeks Moved by L. Holmes, seconded by R. Hooper THAT the Treasurer's Report be adopted as presented. CARRIED 6. Directors' Reports (a) Council Liaison — R. Hooper: Reported that budget is set at 3.95, service groups cannot go over 3.33. Welcomed new business Revel Rose at grand opening. OBIAA meetings have recently focused on public health and opioid crisis, including responsibility and administration of naloxone. Discussion about municipal support for small businesses. There was funding distributed in Mississauga to BIAS for shop local campaigns. A question was raised about recording of BIA meetings. Meeting minutes must be public but not recordings. DRPS attended the Girls' Night Out event and their presence was very well received from the community members. A note of thanks was sent to DRPS for attending. (b) Events — C. Holmes: Reported that Girls' Night Out last week was very successful and no issues were reported. Several messages received from business owners and community members following the event and all were very positive. Some business owners were suggesting another late night shopping event. The Great Pumpkin Adventure involved 40 businesses placing carved/decorated pumpkins in their windows over Halloween weekend. Thanks to businesses participating. Community loved the event and sent notes of thanks for offering free and safe activities for families. Remembrance Day posters have been delivered. Tentative approvals received to host the Moonlight Magic & Christmas Market on Fri Dec 3 from 5-9pm. Ceremony will be shorter and scheduled at 6:30pm. No grandstand seating and masks will be mandatory. Additional lights need to be purchased for the tree at BMO. Distanced visits with Santa will be on Sat Dec 4, 11, 18 and a photographer will take photos by donation to The Salvation Army. Live Reindeer will be present on Dec 4 & 18. St. John's Church will be ringing bells on Saturdays in December. (c) Membership Relations —J. Barry: No report. (d) Streetscape — G. Lucas: Historic Downtown Bowmanville 4 [date] Business Centre (BIA) Reported that November 20 & 21 the winter baskets will be installed along with winter banners. There were some issues with sourcing greenery for the large planters so this year there will only be 4 instead of 8. Support staff are going to remove remaining plants and replace lids on planters. Painting of sign posts will have to wait until next year as the weather conditions are not conducive. Noticed that lots of garbage is found on the bench in front the BMO. Storage shed clean out occurred a few weeks ago. (e) Communications— (vacant): No report. (f) Website & Social Media — L. Holmes: Reported that social media received many positive comments from businesses and community members following Girls' Night Out event. The post about Santa visits in December received more response (likes/shares/reach) than any other recent post. Design proofs of the website redesign were shared on screen. Proofs displayed how the layout would look and different aspects of the interactive business directory. Storefront images are complete and the photographer has submitted invoice. Web designers are working to complete project before end of year. (g) CBOT Updates— B. Wrightman: No Report. 7. New Business (a) Event Proposal from Lifelong Group C. Holmes reported that on October 27 a representative from the Lifelong Group made a presentation to the Events Committee. Lifelong Group is the developer/owner of the former Goodyear property. Lifelong Group is proposing to use the property to host community events and was looking to develop a relationship with the BIA. Consultations following the presentation uncovered several considerations if the BIA decided to enter into a partnership or sponsorship agreement. Lifelong Group has since abandoned plans to attempt an event in December but will consider hosting events in the future. Moved by G. Lucas, seconded by C. Holmes THAT the BIA will not enter into any sponsorship or partnership agreements in relation to hosting of events with Lifelong Group. CARRIED (b) Review of Street Banner Design Proofs Design proofs shared on screen. Each board member provided opinion. Moved by L. Holmes, seconded by R. Hooper Historic Downtown Bowmanville 5 [date] Business Centre (BIA) THAT a revision be requested on the design and once approved sent to production. CARRIED (c) Social Media L. Holmes reiterated safety reasons to keep the identities of those with access to the organization's social media accounts confidential. Councillor Hooper shared information from the OBIAA and its member BIAs about the administration of social media. It is the position of most that BIA social media is to promote the downtown, not individual businesses. Downtown Bowmanville's Facebook and Instagram accounts are well followed and have a large reach. Posts on the main feed promote downtown in general, the businesses, and events. Administration endeavors to keep promotion fair and equitable. A spreadsheet is maintained to track when a business is mentioned in the main feed. Unless there are special circumstances (ie. a business moves location, celebrates a milestone) no business will receive multiple posts until each member receives mention on the main feed. The story feature on Instagram is used to 'repost' individual business posts which helps amplify reach. Businesses that post more frequently will receive more reposts. These reposts last for 24 hours and then disappear. This is in contrast the main feed posts that last forever (or until deleted). Councillor Hooper will reach out to OBIAA to see if there is a template for a social media policy. Moved by R. Hooper, seconded by C. Holmes THAT the BIA will develop a social media policy. CARRIED 8. Date of Next Meeting The next meeting of the Board of Management is scheduled to be held on Tuesday January 11, 2022 commencing at 6:30pm virtually, as COVID restriction remain in place. 9. Adiournment Moved by R. Hooper, seconded by G. Lucas THAT the meeting adjourn. CARRIED The meeting adjourned at 8:39pm.