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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-03-11Historic Downtown Bowmanville Business Centre (BIA) Board of Management Meeting Minutes Tuesday March 11, 2025; 6:30pm Virtual Meeting The Chair welcomed all attendees and read the Virtual Meeting Etiquette statement. 1. Attendance In Attendance: Ron Hooper, Chair Laura Holmes, Secretary Lloyd Rang, Council Representative Cathy Holmes, Director Edgar Lucas, Director Bonnie Wrightman, CBOT representative Laura Knox, MOC Ec Dev representative Paul Pirri, MOC Manager of Economic Development Amber Ross, owner Pink Lemon Karen Vella, owner Gather Miles Vella, owner Gather Melanie Charalambous, owner LUXE nails (departed 7:55pm) Marg Seaton, owner The Glass Slipper (departed 7:52pm) Nadine Herron, owner Nest Desserts Natalie Dookheran, owner Roam Coffee Carmela Gurrieri, employee HER Beauty Dee Zingone, employee HER Beauty Jess Orr, owner HER Beauty Erin Vandan, owner HER Beauty (departed 7:56pm) Lisa Serbec, owner Mystery Wheel Brandon Serbec, owner Mystery Wheel Zachary Munro, owner Talk of the Town Victoria Stade, owner Talk of the Town May Bellingham, owner Hairloft (video not displayed- departed 7:21pm) Regrets: Gerri Lucas, Treasurer Erin Kemp, Director Delegations Present: none 2. Call to Order The Chair called the meeting to order. 3. Land Acknowledgement The Chair read the land acknowledgement statement. 4. Presentation by Delegations *Suspension of Rules to allow for emergency delegation* Historic Downtown Bowmanville 2 Business Centre (BIA) MARCH 2O25 Amber Ross, owner of Pink Lemon read a statement provided by the business owners directly impacted by the March 6 fire downtown. Asking for monetary assistance for business owners during transition period. Also looking for assistance navigating insurance. Councillor Rang reported that the BIA has been working together with Clarington Board of Trade, Invest Clarington, Municipality of Clarington as well as local charities and organizations. A joint meeting of these organizations was held on March 6, the day of the fire, to begin mobilizing support. Rehoboth Christian Reform Church and the Salvation Army Bowmanville are the trusted sources for accepting and distributing donations, but due to overwhelming response have paused physical donations. Gift cards and monetary donations are requested and can be dropped off at 75 Liberty St S. Durham Region Social Services has provided temporary accommodations to the displaced residents and is coordinating the distribution of donations. The Office of the Fire Marshal has control of the scene and investigation. Road closures will remain in effect. The Chair reported that he put a question forward to OBIAA and there are several other BIAs that have experienced similar fires. The Chair recognized 99 King for opening their business to the displaced residents in the immediate aftermath of the fire. B. Wrightman expressed gratitude for the outpouring of support. CBOT and Invest Clarington reached out to local businesses soliciting donated services/time to assist the impacted business navigating this time. A list of resources has been provided to the impacted businesses. As a registered charity, Salvation Army can only financially support individuals. CBOT met with lawyers and other officials this afternoon and are working towards being able to collect donations to be directed to businesses. CBOT asks for patience as the program is set up and will share information when it is available. A QR code will be created as a donation link. Rotary Club will be donating all proceeds from their St Patrick's event to The Salvation Army for fire relief. CBOT is collecting gift cards to be dropped off at Salvation Army. P. Pirri is the Manager of Economic Development. The Municipal Act sets out what the Municipality is permitted to do. The Act prevents the Municipality from distributing funds to businesses directly. Cannot directly or indirectly financially contribute. The Municipal Act also applies to the BIA. The Municipality does have the Community Improvement Program (CIP grants) where businesses can receive assistance. P. Pirri shared that the 'open for business' signs have been installed. Municipal staff have been told not to park in the Silver St lot to allow more space for shoppers. Current road closures are mandated by the Office of the Fire Marshal. Free parking being offered until March 16, but there are ongoing conversations about extension. Region will still pick up waste twice weekly. Businesses in the hard closure should drop waste on the east side of Silver St. Councillor Rang shared that questions for the Municipality should be directed to him or Councillor Anderson so that they can be directed to appropriate staff. The Communications Director at the Municipality is responsible for general updates. *Suspension of rules to allow question period* The Chair opened the floor to all meeting participants. Several questions from business owners were answered. 5. Updates from Community Partners (a) CBOT See update on fire response above. Historic Downtown Bowmanville 3 MARCH 2O25 Business Centre (BIA) (b) Economic Development L. Knox shared that the Ec Dev team is available to provide assistance to any business or the BIA. When the time comes, Invest Clarington will assist with marketing to promote shopping downtown. 6. Adoption of Minutes Moved by E. Lucas, seconded by L. Holmes THAT the minutes of the meeting of February 11, 2025 be approved as circulated. CARRIED 7. Business Arising from Previous Minutes (a) Tree at BMO A letter of response has not been received from the property owner. E. Lucas spoke with BMO bank manager and letter was also forwarded to BMO head office to direct to property owner. The Chair will reach out to the arborist. (b) New Garbage Receptacles No update. 8. Consent Items - Correspondence Correspondence was received from i. Planning Department regarding Notice of Decision OPA136 revised & C-009-25 BEUC Secondary Plan Recommendation ii. Economic Development regarding Traffic Notice re: snowbank removal iii. Communications Department regarding Communications Notice re: snow removal in downtown areas iv. Eiram Development Ltd regarding Notice of Appeal Ontario Land Tribunal V. Central Counties Tourism regarding partnership funding vi. Planning Department regarding Public Meeting Notice re: Concession 3 Moved by L. Holmes, seconded by E. Lucas THAT the correspondence be received for information. THAT item 8.i., 8.ii., and 8.iii. were distributed to BIA members CARRIED 9. Consent Items — Discussion none 10. Treasurer's Report E. Lucas presented the following in the Treasurer's absence: Historic Downtown Bowmanville 4 Business Centre (BIA) i. Levy received $184121 ii. Account includes Maplefest vendor fees iii. Audit underway Moved by L. Rang, seconded by C. Holmes THAT the Treasurer's Report be adopted as presented. CARRIED 11. Directors' Reports (a) Council Liaison — MARCH 2O25 L. Rang has no additional information to share. Cultural heritage resource list requires future builds to fit within the character of downtown. (b) Events — C. Holmes reported that Girls Night Out will proceed on April 10. Participation invite will be sent out soon. Maplefest was nearly 95% sold out last week. All submitted but not -yet processed vendor applications are on hold. Waiting to see what the available road space will be. All fire impacted businesses will be permitted to participate. Maplefest permits are pending. Have not received reply to response about Bowmanville Farmers Market request to move to downtown despite the Board's decision to not support this relocation being sent. All advertising has listed Rickard as location for this year's farmers market. Posters and marketing forthcoming for Girls Night. A new BMO window wrap will be installed. (c) Membership Relations — No report. (d) Streetscape — E. Lucas reported flower vendor has been contacted. A Toronto region has a bracket to hold winter and summer baskets — image shared on screen. Will investigate pricing. Would require summer and winter baskets to be same size. Half of the winter hanging baskets have already been removed, rest coming down in the next week. Stars will be inspected for damage and light replacement. Winter banners will be removed and replaced with spring banners. Will call the vendor to pick up the large sidewalk planters. (e) Communications— L. Holmes reported that regular updates have been sent to BIA members following the fire. BIA members can rest assured that any relevant information will be shared by email as soon as it becomes available. Information about the CBOT program to help displaced businesses will be shared and a poster will be created with 'how to donate' information. (f) Website & Social Media — L. Holmes reported that with the news of the fire downtown the accounts gained many new followers and posts have gone viral with several hundred thousands of views. Remain hopeful that new followers will stay. Content has been mainly focused on fire related information but will return to regular programming. Historic Downtown Bowmanville Business Centre (BIA) MARCH 2O25 Promotion is limited to BIA businesses. Can only promote fundraising being directed to trusted partners. Have received numerous requests from non-BIA members to be promoted on social and website, which is denied. Website contact us form has been inundated with messages, mostly related to fire. 12. New Business (a) Snow Removal The Secretary reports that a letter to Council was sent on February 18, 2025 expressing gratitude for the sidewalk clearing apparatus. The Chair reports that snowbanks along the sidewalk curb were becoming a serious issue given the back-to- back storm systems but these have been largely cleared now and no longer warrant discussion. (b) OBIAA toolkit and St Catherines letter regarding recycling The Chair requested that the OBIAA toolkit image be shared on screen. The image accommodates a BIA logo in the centre region and is designed to support the shop local movement in the wake of the tariff uncertainty. Moved by E. Lucas, seconded by C. Holmes THAT there is support for doing a mock-up of the logo. CARRIED The Chair requested that the letter sent to MPP McCarthy by the St Catherines BIA be shared on screen. The letter is related to the producer responsibility for recycling legislation. To date the BIA has been asked to wait to hear next steps from Durham Region on this issue. The Chair will follow up. (c) Economic Uncertainty/Tariffs The shop local, support Canadian movement has been adopted by the Country since the Trump tariff announcements. Many downtowns have started campaigns based on this. In downtown Bowmanville, this issue has been largely overshadowed by the impacts of the March 6 fire. The Chair received a last-minute invitation from Jamil Jivani, MP to attend a meeting on Monday March 10 entitled Durham Economic Forum but was unable to attend. The meeting intended to bring together business, labour unions, service providers, education institutions, and other organizations from a variety of sectors and industries to hear concerns and priorities directly from those who build the local economy. Seeking challenges, opportunities, and ways that the MP office can support considering the economic uncertainty and tariffs. The Secretary will ask the MP office for minutes. (d) May Meeting Date Moved by L. Holmes, seconded by E. Lucas Historic Downtown Bowmanville Business Centre (BIA) MARCH 2O25 THAT due to inability to achieve quorum the meeting date be moved to the first Tuesday of May. CARRIED 13. Date of Next Meeti The next meeting of the Board of Management is scheduled to be held on Tuesday April 8, 2025 commencing at 6:30pm, virtually. 14. Adjournment Moved by C. Holmes, seconded by L. Rang THAT the meeting adjourn. CARRIED The meeting adjourned at 8:01pm.