Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-10-14Historic Downtown Bowmanville Business Centre (BIA) Board of Management Meeting Minutes Tuesday October 14, 2025; 6:30pm Virtual Meeting 1. Attendance In Attendance: Ron Hooper, Chair Laura Holmes, Secretary Gerri Lucas, Treasurer Cathy Holmes, Director Edgar Lucas, Director Bonnie Wrightman, CBOT representative (depart 7:52pm) Laura Knox, MOC Ec Dev representative (depart 7:56pm) Sarah Gerdy, owner Markets Amber Ross, owner Pink Lemon Natalie Dookheran, owner Roam Coffee (joined 6:52pm) Regrets: Lloyd Rang, Council Representative 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 The Chair recognized that no delegations were present. 5. Updates from Community Partners (a) Economic Development L. Knox was unable to get an update from Region of Durham on recycling regulations. Tony Riccardi is aiming to have a review on Thursday of the construction zone. Construction is unable to pause and will proceed at Division. Attempts be made to mitigate any impacts. Talk of the Town grand opening pushed back due to permitting and no date set. Small business week partnering with CBOT and BACD on October 23 at Wellington Lofts. Waiting for an update from DRPS on the opening date for the provincial funding project. DRPS installed a temporary camera on pole at eastbound on-ramp to 401 near Liberty. The Chair requests that Municipal staff notify the BIA and impacted businesses when work is planned downtown. This request follows Enbridge Gas starting work downtown today. (b) CBOT B. Wrightman expressed gratitude for the BIA sharing the letter sent to Minister McCarthy regarding recycling changes. CBOT shared with Orono and Newcastle and is currently crafting their own letter. Historic Downtown Bowmanville 2 OCTOBER 2025 Business Centre (BIA) Bowman Bins grand opening is November 8. Community leader discussion this Friday afternoon on navigating homelessness which is an ongoing discussion since 2002. Key community leaders will be looking for what is the solution for Bowmanville. CBOT is trying to get contact info for Salihi Rug. 6. Adoption of Minutes Moved by C. Holmes, seconded by E. Lucas THAT the minutes of the meeting of September 9, 2025 be approved as circulated. CARRIED 7. Business Arising from Previous Minutes (a) Tree at BMO E. Lucas has not had an update from BMO. Budget discussions to happen in October. The Chair spoke with one lighting installation company about lights on the existing tree but has not received a quote. We will move forward with lighting the existing tree for Moonlight Magic. (b) Recycling Regulations A letter was sent from the BIA to Minister McCarthy with copy to Clarington Council and Durham Region Council at the end of last month. It included 56 petition signatures from downtown businesses plus a letter from church board. Invest Clarington shared correspondence that Clarington had received from the Minister. The Minister announced that despite direction from his office, the Producer Responsibility Organization (PRO) refuses to collect from non-eligible sources. The letter from the PRO mentions that if Municipalities want to collect they can drop off at the recycling depot. The Chair shared that the Mayor has asked if OBIAA has shared what other Municipalities are doing in the wake of the loss of collection for their downtowns. Downtown businesses are very concerned over the discontinuation of recycling collection. Concern that recyclable materials will be packaged as garbage or left to blow around the downtown. In the historic area, there is no space for third-party collection bins. Moved by G.Lucas, seconded by L. Holmes THAT Clarington Council be asked to work with Durham Region Council to find an alternate level of service for our downtown recycling collection. CARRIED (c) Clarington BIAs Collaboration Meeting scheduled for next week. Submit any agenda items. Historic Downtown Bowmanville 3 OCTOBER 2025 Business Centre (BIA) (d) Banners New winter banners are in production and should be ready for install before Santa Claus Parade. (e) Construction The Chair requests that businesses receive notification when work is planned in the area. Enbridge Gas was performing work on the sidewalk area when he arrived to open the business. It is unclear if Clarington had advance notice of the work being done. 8. Consent Items - Correspondence Correspondence was received from i. Planning & Infrastructure regarding notice of intersection accessibility improvements (via email) ii. Invest Clarington distributing a copy of letter from Minister McCarthy to Mayor Foster and letter from PROs to Mayor Foster regarding recycling regulations (via email) Moved by L. Holmes, seconded by G. Lucas THAT the correspondence be received for information. THAT item 8.i. was distributed to members. CARRIED 9. Consent Items – Discussion None. Item 8.ii. was already discussed in 7.b. Recycling Regulations. 10. Treasurer’s Report The Treasurer presented the following: i. $208092.79 in current account ii. All Applefest invoices are outstanding Moved by G. Lucas seconded by L. Holmes THAT the Treasurer’s Report be adopted as presented. CARRIED 11. Directors’ Reports (a) Council Liaison – No report. (b) Events – C. Holmes reported that Applefest is fully booked. Construction may impact plotting of vendors. Shuttle buses are booked with parking at Liberty Church. It is much more complicated to use non-Municipal property for parking and negotiations took long time. Ladies Night participation requests go out after Applefest for November event. Halloween activity books will be distributed. Planning for Moonlight Magic Historic Downtown Bowmanville 4 OCTOBER 2025 Business Centre (BIA) is underway. BMO window wrap will coordinate with new winter banners and be installed in time for parade. Vintage carriage will be entered into parade happening Nov 15. (c) Membership Relations – G. Lucas reported that flowers will be sent to the new businesses. Split purchases among downtown businesses and send bakery treats when indicated. (d) Streetscape – E. Lucas reported that welder provided quote for new basket hangers. Existing pole hangers are rusted and falling out. Have been in use for 30 years or more. There are 78 required (200ea for welding), labour estimated at 150ea to remove old and install new. Use existing hangers this year for Christmas– down to 40. Welder could have them ready for next spring. There are unused holiday décor funds in the budget that could be put towards hangers and the remainder could be put forward to 2026 budget. Board will take closer look at budget and revisit next meeting. (e) Communications – L. Holmes reported that several alerts about construction road closures have been distributed. Numerous reminders about Applefest road closures have been issued. (f) Website & Social Media – L. Holmes reported that there has been a significant increase in the number of contact us messages received through the website. Most are related to Applefest. New businesses have been updated on the directory. Since last month’s meeting two BIA member businesses have asked for promotion on social. An explanation was sent to each explaining that the Historic Downtown Bowmanville social media is for promotion of the downtown overall, and not individual businesses. Would like to know if BIA should send email to all members explaining guidelines. Board decides to take no action. The Chair has collected some social media policies from OBIAA members. 12. New Business (a) Downtown property defacing On Sunday September 28, two persons were witnessed downtown using a paint brush and bucket with shellac or strong glue to affix posters to downtown light poles. Clarington Bylaw was immediately notified. A work request was submitted to Operations which was carried out later in the week but there was difficulty removing the posters. Significant remnants remain after mechanical scraping. The Chair will speak with Mariano to see if there is a solvent that can help with removal. It is typical for the events coordinators to find and remove posters taped to light poles the night ahead of a large festival. Outside businesses try to use the festival as an opportunity to advertise. Posters affixed to the light poles, or anywhere throughout downtown, deface our area and encourage others to do the same. Like graffiti, all types of property defacing needs to be discouraged and promptly removed. Historic Downtown Bowmanville 5 OCTOBER 2025 Business Centre (BIA) The same evening, security cameras caught footage of a person destroying the sidewalk patio installed at Brewers Pantry. Patio sides were kicked and thrown leaving it broken and disassembled. (b) Proposal for business involvement contest G. Lucas would like to get businesses involved by offering a contest for holiday decorating. Some ideas were discussed, as well as incentives. The board is supportive. Discussion will continue outside of the meeting. (c) November meeting date The Chair has a conflict with Remembrance Day events. Moved by G. Lucas, seconded by L. Holmes THAT the meeting date be rescheduled to Monday November 10 at 6:30pm CARRIED 13. Date of Next Meeting The next meeting of the Board of Management is scheduled to be held on Monday November 10, 2025 commencing at 6:30pm, virtually. 14. Adjournment Moved by G. Lucas, seconded by C. Holmes THAT the meeting adjourn. CARRIED The meeting adjourned at 8:13pm.