2023-01-10 · City Council · Transcript · Downtown Development Authority

--- title: Downtown Development Authority date: 2023-01-10 source: 2023-01-10_Downtown_Development_Authority.wav --- [0:00:03, 0:00:10]: Hello everyone, this is Roger Custon. We are starting the January meeting for the Stockbridge Downtown Development Authority. [0:00:11, 0:00:17]: Um we will start off with a roll call. So Bob, will you please set a call roll? [0:00:18, 0:00:20]: Uh Roger Custon. I'm present. [0:00:21, 0:00:21]: Oh. [0:00:21, 0:00:22]: Fran Merritt. [0:00:24, 0:00:25]: And merit private. [0:00:25, 0:00:26]: Uh huh. [0:00:26, 0:00:28]: Uh Bob Swagert, I'm here. [0:00:28, 0:00:29]: Um [0:00:29, 0:00:30]: Maxwell Sears. [0:00:33, 0:00:36]: Uh and uh councilman Elton Alexander. [0:00:40, 0:00:40]: Okay. [0:00:41, 0:01:01]: All right, so we'll the record shows that we do not have a quorum, but we will proceed with the meeting. Um I since we don't have a quorum, I'm gonna um skip the um uh first two items on the agenda, which is to approve today's meeting agenda and the meeting minutes. We'll come back to that once we have a quorum. [0:01:01, 0:01:21]: Um, but uh I'll just go ahead and start with the uh opening remarks. Um first I want to say I want to thank the city of Stockbridge for the volunteer appreciation event that was held in December. Um I thought that was very gracious of the city to uh recognize uh the the the work that's done by uh [0:01:21, 0:01:39]: this volunteer board and all the volunteer boards that serve the city of Stockbridge. So um thank you for doing that. Um next I was going to mention that we have a new economic development director, but uh he is here in person. So uh let me turn the floor over to you, Mr. Alons, and you can say hello and uh [0:01:39, 0:01:41]: Tell us a little bit about where uh your background. [0:01:42, 0:01:51]: Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Um good evening, everyone. I'm very excited to be here. Certainly very excited to be back in Georgia. Um I [0:01:52, 0:01:57]: Look forward to working with you all. Um as far as my background, uh most recently [0:01:57, 0:02:01]: I was the economic development manager for the city of Wilton Manors, which is [0:02:02, 0:02:07]: A small municipality outside of Fort Lauderdale, a little over eleven thousand residents. [0:02:08, 0:02:15]: Before that, I spent about three years um in Orlando working for the city of Orlando as an economic development coordinator. [0:02:15, 0:02:28]: And prior to that, uh believe it or not, I was here um in Georgia uh working for the Department of Community Affairs, doing some affordable housing policy work and some management analyst work as well. [0:02:28, 0:02:47]: Uh as I've said before, I'm very excited to to be back um in the state and I look forward to uh working with uh the DDA. Uh I know that uh downtown uh development is a focus um and it's certainly a focus of our department as well. So I look forward to working with you all as we look to um [0:02:48, 0:02:55]: put uh downtown Stockbridge on the map and definitely uh take on some uh redevelopment projects. [0:02:56, 0:03:16]: Very good. Thank you for that. If it's all right with everyone, we'll just go around the room and introduce ourselves. So I'm Roger Custon. I'm both uh uh resident of the city of Stockbridge. I also uh my partner and I own a business uh on the in the main street and downtown district uh called on Beautiful. And uh, you know, I'm just introduced. [0:03:16, 0:03:23]: Interested to do what I can to uh help the development of the downtown district and ultimately to uh [0:03:24, 0:03:36]: uh bring in uh quality foot traffic to the downtown district. So I'm really glad you're here and I really appreciate the work that's done with this group as well as Main Street and the city staff. So thank you. [0:03:36, 0:03:40]: Um I'll turn it over to uh Bob. You want to say hello? [0:03:40, 0:03:46]: Um, I'm Bob Swigard. I'm retired. I'm a resident of Stockbridge for about twenty two years. [0:03:47, 0:03:56]: And uh like Roger, I'm also interested in in uh revitalizing and developing uh uh the downtown area of of Stockbridge and um [0:03:58, 0:03:59]: Look forward to working with you. [0:04:01, 0:04:03]: Great. Uh Fran, you wanna go next? [0:04:04, 0:04:06]: Yes, absolutely. Thank you, uh Cherry. [0:04:06, 0:04:13]: Good evening and it's so nice to meet you. I didn't get and and and please forgive me, I didn't get your first name. What is your first name again? [0:04:14, 0:04:16]: So it's Kim, K I M. [0:04:17, 0:04:20]: Thank you, thank you, thank you. I wrote something down and listen. [0:04:21, 0:04:24]: But I'm glad I got it. I got it together now. But [0:04:24, 0:04:26]: Um, family is resident for [0:04:27, 0:04:29]: eighteen years, I believe we might seen this year. [0:04:30, 0:04:31]: Um proud homeowner. [0:04:32, 0:04:37]: Um and planning on um establishing my mediation business in the future with the city of Southbridge. [0:04:38, 0:04:42]: just to give you a little tidbit of that. Um currently working in telecom industry. [0:04:43, 0:04:43]: Um [0:04:44, 0:04:49]: And listen, I am um definitely uh wanted to get more involved. [0:04:49, 0:04:52]: within about local government and [0:04:52, 0:04:55]: um being you know more involved in specifics and of course [0:04:56, 0:04:57]: being a part of this board. [0:04:57, 0:04:59]: And being um [0:04:59, 0:05:07]: I guess instrumental in revitalizing and just beautifying the city of Stockbridge is something that I'm very excited about. [0:05:07, 0:05:12]: Um and I just love to be a part of that where we just really grow. So I look forward to working with you. [0:05:13, 0:05:14]: Same. [0:05:16, 0:05:36]: Great. And um here have you had the chance to uh meet with Mr. Lawrence? I don't know if you know each other. Okay, very good. And um you've probably caught on. Um at least I prefer to be on a first name basis. Uh so you know, but I certainly respect uh your preference. Feel free to call me Kim. I [0:05:36, 0:05:37]: I [0:05:37, 0:05:57]: That that works for me. Very good. Well, we really appreciate you being here and thank you for joining tonight on such short notice. Um, let's uh just a moment if if y'all will uh uh Mr. Councilman Alexander um asked me to resend the the link and um Vanessa if you know of a [0:05:57, 0:06:04]: a trick to send the Zoom participant link to someone via [0:06:04, 0:06:06]: Text um [0:06:06, 0:06:14]: Please let me know how to do that because I all I know to do through this. I will send it to Councilman Alexander right now. Okay. All right. Very good. Thank you. [0:06:16, 0:06:36]: And um so he should be joining shortly. Um it's all right, so let me move on to the next item. And uh um if you you know you're absolutely welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting, but um or if there's anything you want to share right away that you know you you want us to be mindful of as far as what's going on with the city before we let you go. [0:06:36, 0:06:41]: know there is an item on the agenda if you want to cover that now happy to hear from you if there's anything else you want to share. [0:06:42, 0:06:46]: Mm not really. I don't really have a lot of um updates uh other than [0:06:46, 0:07:00]: I look forward to working with this group and I know that Kira has uh some Main Street updates that she'll be sharing. Um other than that, I look forward to um our meeting and I look forward to uh working with you all. And thank you so much for what you do. [0:07:01, 0:07:06]: Great. Thank you. Thanks for being here. All right. Thank you. Have a good night. All right. [0:07:07, 0:07:25]: All right, uh so there's a couple of uh just updates I wanted to share with you. Um I did complete the uh annual immigration and reform statement with the Georgia Department of Audits. I also sent the link to each of you as I was doing it this year. I I realized I was the only person who was registered with. [0:07:25, 0:07:45]: um audits to respond to that report. And I just thought, you know, as a backup, it would be good to have somebody else in case for whatever reason I'm unable to complete that. It's just an annual statement that we're complying with immigration law. Basically there's three questions and I took screenshots to make sure if anybody else [0:07:45, 0:08:05]: had to answer those questions uh they they knew at least what my response has been in the past years um the next item that's going to be due so that we've got a little bit more runway on this next item which is the uh 2022 um arf annual um authority [0:08:04, 0:08:24]: um report of financial and I'm not I'm kind of butchering the full name of it but this is a report that's required by the Department of Community Affairs for all authorities. It's both a financial report as well as um a uh contact list for the uh board members and [0:08:24, 0:08:44]: And it's a little bit more extensive. It's about 10 pages of information that's input. Thankfully, at least in past years, it has copied over the previous year's information. So if you know if the members have stayed the same, then we're able to bring. [0:08:44, 0:08:55]: that over. The main thing I'm waiting on is I'll need to work with Barber on that because it does require a lot of financial information and it's the full report for 2022. [0:08:55, 0:08:59]: Uh hold on. I just got uh notices of public inv okay. [0:08:59, 0:09:00]: And I'll say that's [0:09:01, 0:09:02]: Okay. [0:09:03, 0:09:05]: This is from Councilman Alexander. [0:09:07, 0:09:08]: Right. [0:09:10, 0:09:14]: Let me see if he's on the uh attendees. If if [0:09:15, 0:09:16]: Oh, there he is right there. [0:09:17, 0:09:19]: Let me bring in to panelists. [0:09:21, 0:09:24]: He says it was a private, um [0:09:25, 0:09:25]: Might. [0:09:26, 0:09:28]: Yes, um [0:09:30, 0:09:40]: I just promoted him to panelist. So uh councilman, you should be able to um see and hear us. Oh, he's joining in now. All right. [0:09:42, 0:09:57]: Yeah, I was a little confused about it. I kept getting it look pulling the links and the link with a public link. So yeah. That's that's another way in. That's a it's a side door. Okay. So welcome. Thanks for joining. And um [0:09:57, 0:09:58]: And I [0:09:58, 0:09:58]: No. [0:10:02, 0:10:04]: Are you able able to hear me still? [0:10:04, 0:10:24]: I can hear you, Nelia. Okay, great. Yeah, I accidentally hit my own mute button, mute button. Um all right, so with with uh councilman, we were just uh actually Mr. Kim Alons joined the meeting briefly just to introduce himself and we did a round of introductions. So uh thank you to council for filling that position. Uh [0:10:24, 0:10:40]: Um, and I was just doing a few of the um chairman's updates um since we didn't have a quorum to vote on the uh agenda and the meeting minutes. So I'll finish that and then we'll circle back to the first agenda item so that we know that we have a quorum. [0:10:40, 0:11:00]: So I was mentioned mentioning that we um are the next item to report to complete is the uh and uh the annual AARF report. Um the other two items that I wanted to mention is um uh that uh we have one, potentially two board. [0:11:00, 0:11:20]: So, you know, we've uh with uh when Samiqua left uh the DDA several months ago, that created a vacancy. The other potential vacancy is uh Mr. Maxwell Sears, who has not joined, and I've I've been unable to read. [0:11:19, 0:11:39]: Reach him after several attempts. So I'm gonna ask for the board's opinion on whether the DDA would consider that to be an abandonment of position. I did reach out to our attorney as far as, you know, what's the legal basis for how to handle something like this. And he said there's nothing really written in the law. [0:11:39, 0:11:58]: And it's not addressed in our bylaws. So it would ultimately be the city council's decision as to whether or not to reappoint a backfill for that position. But I figured that the DDA should at least express an opinion to the city council as to whether we consider that. [0:11:59, 0:12:02]: uh an an abandonment of office is an essential one. [0:12:03, 0:12:23]: So those are the updates I was gonna um I wanted to share with you all. So I will let's circle back to the uh call to order items and uh approve the rest of today's meeting agenda. So um I'll go ahead and make a motion to approve uh the meeting agenda as uh sent out last week via email. [0:12:27, 0:12:30]: Thank you, Fran. Uh any discussion on the agenda? [0:12:33, 0:12:39]: All right, let's uh all those in favor of approving today's agenda, please uh raise your hand. [0:12:40, 0:13:00]: All right, very good. That passes. The next item is to approve the November 15th meeting minutes. And again, my apologies. I only sent that out to you all uh this afternoon. If that if you did not have a chance to review the meeting minutes, um we can [0:12:59, 0:13:14]: certainly uh choose to postpone that for the next meeting um if you want a little bit more time to review that um but we'll just i'll just leave it there and it open up for discussion if we want to consider approving the meeting minutes for november [0:13:17, 0:13:20]: You might have went much more time to review it. [0:13:21, 0:13:22]: I didn't hear you clearly, Fran. Go ahead. [0:13:24, 0:13:26]: I said I would like more time to review it. [0:13:26, 0:13:27]: Okay. [0:13:27, 0:13:33]: Um any other discussion regarding the uh approving of the the November meeting minutes? [0:13:36, 0:13:56]: Uh I guess the other point I would add is Vanessa, you had said that you you found a few typos that you wanted to correct. So um if you what we'll do is we'll work from the revised version that you send out. And if you wouldn't mind sending it out to the whole board. I will do it. Okay, great. Did you want me to do that going forward? [0:13:56, 0:14:05]: Roger, because normally I think I will do that. I think so. That kind of saves a step and because I I don't want to be the the holdup when when that occurs. [0:14:05, 0:14:06]: Oh, okay. [0:14:08, 0:14:12]: Just a moment, Barber is on now. Let's see. [0:14:13, 0:14:15]: Barber, can you hear us? [0:14:16, 0:14:36]: Yes, I can. All right. And Barber's joining us by vo phone today. Uh, so she does not have her uh the ability to have her camera on. So thanks for joining. Uh all right. So Barber, we had just uh we've completed a roll call. I've done the chairman's updates and [0:14:36, 0:14:42]: And uh we decided to postpone the uh vote on the approving the November meeting minutes. [0:14:43, 0:14:52]: Got it. So that brings us right up to your treasurer updates. So uh do you want me to go ahead and share the um the report that you [0:14:52, 0:14:54]: Gabe sent to us earlier. [0:14:54, 0:14:57]: Yes, and I do my best to try to uh [0:14:58, 0:14:58]: Read this. [0:14:59, 0:15:03]: Let me give me a just a moment to queue it up and I will [0:15:05, 0:15:06]: Actually we open it first. [0:15:07, 0:15:08]: Give me just a moment. [0:15:11, 0:15:12]: There it is. [0:15:15, 0:15:17]: Of course. [0:15:21, 0:15:21]: Okay. [0:15:24, 0:15:24]: [935.9, 942.8]: All right, if someone could confirm that you can see the screen, I've landed on the profit and loss page, Barber. [0:15:43, 0:15:43]: Yes. [0:15:45, 0:15:46]: Oh. [0:15:46, 0:15:48]: Is that the right one or do you want the other tab? [0:15:49, 0:15:52]: Yes, the profit and loss. Can you screw let me see if I can. [0:15:53, 0:15:54]: Okay, there we go. [0:15:54, 0:15:55]: Um [0:15:56, 0:15:58]: So November we just had two [0:15:59, 0:16:02]: We didn't meet last month, so I'm over November and December. [0:16:02, 0:16:03]: Um November we [0:16:03, 0:16:10]: had our regular recurring$40 Zoom expense as well as our membership to the Georgia Downtown Association. [0:16:11, 0:16:12]: Five hundred dollars. [0:16:13, 0:16:16]: For uh total expenses for the month of November, five hundred and forty. [0:16:17, 0:16:19]: And then in December we had um [0:16:21, 0:16:23]: А стратегік арт культур стаді. [0:16:24, 0:16:25]: Um [0:16:25, 0:16:26]: I'll forget the vendor edit. [0:16:27, 0:16:27]: The moment. [0:16:28, 0:16:33]: But that was two thousand nine hundred and seventy dollars for that study for MLK art cultural study. [0:16:34, 0:16:37]: And then we also uh had paid the [0:16:37, 0:16:39]: B for our logo design. [0:16:39, 0:16:40]: For twenty nine hundred. [0:16:41, 0:16:44]: as well as our again forty dollar recurring Zoom. [0:16:45, 0:16:50]: um expense for the month. So total December expenses five thousand nine hundred ten dollars. [0:16:51, 0:16:52]: For the year. [0:16:52, 0:16:55]: We had total income of forty five thousand. [0:16:55, 0:17:02]: twenty-five dollars, which is uh forty-five thousand grant income. Twenty-five dollars was a fee we received. [0:17:02, 0:17:03]: Um [0:17:04, 0:17:06]: Regarding the sale of that property. [0:17:06, 0:17:10]: The option fee. The option fee, that's what it's called. Mm-hmm. [0:17:10, 0:17:12]: And then total expenses for the year. [0:17:12, 0:17:16]: Seventeen thousand six hundred sixty dollars and ninety cents. [0:17:16, 0:17:18]: For a net star plus. [0:17:18, 0:17:22]: Twenty seven thousand three hundred sixty four dollars and ten cents. [0:17:24, 0:17:25]: Any questions? [0:17:27, 0:17:29]: Okay, then if we go to the balance sheet. [0:17:30, 0:17:31]: The other tab. [0:17:33, 0:17:34]: Are you able to see it? [0:17:35, 0:17:38]: Uh let me scroll. Not yet. [0:17:40, 0:17:42]: Okay. Can you scroll to the [0:17:43, 0:17:44]: Left, I think. [0:17:45, 0:17:48]: It's as far left as it goes. Let me carm up. [0:17:50, 0:17:50]: Is it not? [0:17:51, 0:17:52]: I can make it bigger. [0:17:54, 0:17:56]: Maybe make it smaller. Maybe that's what I mean. [0:17:56, 0:17:57]: Oh, okay. [0:17:58, 0:18:01]: Okay, I think I can still barely ooh oh no no. [0:18:02, 0:18:05]: I'm sorry guys. I'm on the sphone and I can hardly make out this. [0:18:07, 0:18:18]: All right. Okay. Well, I can see that uh enough. I can see that well enough to know that the first number is our facade grant,$114,669 and 65 cents. [0:18:19, 0:18:24]: And our uh uh checking account balance forty six thousand seven hundred dollars and fifty eight cents. [0:18:24, 0:18:27]: For total cash on hand as of the end of the year. [0:18:28, 0:18:30]: One hundred sixty one dollars, three hundred seventy. [0:18:31, 0:18:34]: Может сі вон тазен три семидоласін тварин три центс. [0:18:36, 0:18:37]: Um [0:18:38, 0:18:39]: We had a change in cash. [0:18:40, 0:18:43]: Um between november and December of fifty nine hundred. [0:18:43, 0:18:47]: And again, that's those three expenses there, the Zoom, the art study and the [0:18:48, 0:18:49]: Local design. [0:18:51, 0:18:53]: And we had two. [0:18:53, 0:18:54]: Um [0:18:55, 0:18:56]: anticipated expenses coming up. [0:18:57, 0:19:01]: Um, after month in and that is again Zoom forty dollars, which is monthly. [0:19:01, 0:19:08]: And then a two hundred dollar reimbursement to me for GDA membership, which Roger and I are going to [0:19:08, 0:19:09]: Resolve this month. [0:19:11, 0:19:14]: Any questions about our balance sheet, our cash on hand? [0:19:16, 0:19:17]: Future expenses. [0:19:20, 0:19:21]: Okay, that concludes my report. [0:19:23, 0:19:43]: Thank you, Barber. A couple of comments. The Rhyme and Reason payment, the logo design, and I briefed you on this prior to our meeting. I know you had paid the invoice, but I have not yet received the logos of the marketing package. I had gotten notice that there was something at City Hall for me. I went and picked it up. [0:19:43, 0:20:03]: Up today, but it was not the actual deliverable for the logo design. So I will now reach out to Rhyme and Reason just to get the actual deliverable of our new logos and um and I will share that with you all once we have that. Kira, you you you worked with that firm before, so I imagine that's something that they would. [0:20:03, 0:20:23]: sent to us electronically like some sort of a link or something like that where we can download the actual logo image files right yes it was like a a drop box kind of thing that they um set up and we were able to download all of the things that we needed. Very good okay well I will follow up on that piece. [0:20:22, 0:20:42]: The other piece I wanted to mention is uh, Barber, this is a significant um pending uh expense that's already been approved by the uh DDA, which was the market study that was done with the uh Georgia Tech Innovation Institute. And um they have not yet invoiced us for that, but uh [0:20:42, 0:20:48]: Um I don't have the exact amount, but it was somewhere around um [0:20:49, 0:20:54]: I want to say it was sixteen thousand dollars. Um, that was either the [0:20:54, 0:21:14]: Full amount or the gross amount or the net amount. I know they gave us a significant discount off of what wouldn't be the normal expense. Um, but um I can what I'll do is I'll follow up with you, Barber, on the exact amount that we signed off on. So that um I guess you might want to note that as an [0:21:14, 0:21:19]: expected expense. Yes. So we don't lose sight of it. So [0:21:21, 0:21:23]: Yes, thank you. [0:21:25, 0:21:45]: That's all I can think of and uh related to the uh oh I'm sorry, there's one more item that we were discussing before you came on, which is um uh I'll need to get with you to do the uh annual report with the Department of Community Affairs for the the financial report, the AARF. You might recall we worked on that together last year and it's just [0:21:45, 0:22:05]: just, you know, we have to refile that each year. We have to do that sometime before June. So I'll just need to set up like an hour with you. Now that we have these financial uh figures for the year end report, that's that's most of what I think I'll need, but I'll go through it and if there's any remaining items that I'll need your help with, um, I'll I'll schedule some time. [0:22:05, 0:22:06]: [1326.7, 1327.2]: Okay. [0:22:08, 0:22:16]: All right. Um then that brings us to I guess that any other questions or comments for um the financial report. [0:22:20, 0:22:24]: All right, and that brings us to the secretary updates. Bob, do you have anything for the group? [0:22:27, 0:22:27]: Uh no. [0:22:29, 0:22:35]: All right, and that brings us to Main Street Advisory Board updates and um [0:22:36, 0:22:39]: Barber, do you want any anything to lead with or do you want to turn it over to Kira? [0:22:40, 0:22:41]: Ah, we'll turn it over to Kira. [0:22:41, 0:22:43]: All right, we're gonna get it. [0:22:56, 0:22:59]: Mm. [0:23:08, 0:23:11]: Here um you're on mute. Um [0:23:17, 0:23:18]: I'm sorry. [0:23:20, 0:23:32]: That's all right. Um did did you have any updates for the Main Street? Yes, I do. Out there was Lisa on the um other line. I was trying to get a few numbers from her, so I'm sorry. Um [0:23:33, 0:23:35]: As far as um [0:23:35, 0:23:55]: The Main Street program is concerned. I guess our biggest news is that we have two new board members who were recently sworn in at the city council meeting last night. Ms. Camille Reynoso Mason. She'll be our newest citizen representative, and she has been active with the Main Street program. [0:23:55, 0:24:15]: program for several years as a volunteer. So we were really excited that she was interested in serving on the board and put in an application. And then the second person is Ms. Andrea Burnett. She is the CEO for [0:24:16, 0:24:20]: uh powerhouse pest control, which is a downtown business. [0:24:20, 0:24:28]: And um she also has been very active with Main Street for several years. And um we had approached her. [0:24:28, 0:24:35]: um earlier um to be a board member, but at that time her schedule just would not allow for her. [0:24:35, 0:24:55]: to be able to participate, but now some um things have freed up and she was able to submit an application. So we're very excited to have her on board as well. She, as I said, is a co-owner and she serves as the CEO of Powerhouse, which is a 20-year business. So we're really excited [0:24:55, 0:25:00]: excited to have them as a part of our board. [0:25:01, 0:25:19]: Um another exciting thing to announce is that the Main Street staff has moved into the Ted Strickland building. Unfortunately, we are using borrowed furniture as we still do not have the furniture that we actually ordered specifically for the building. [0:25:20, 0:25:35]: Um, we've been promised that it would be here in January. So um, we've reached January and we're um waiting for that call to come that everything is prepared for installment. Um these are some custom pieces, so [0:25:36, 0:25:41]: Um, it's gotten, I guess, kind of mucked up in the um supply chain. [0:25:41, 0:25:50]: Situation that we've been experiencing for several months. So we're waiting for that to be available and to be installed. [0:25:50, 0:26:10]: We had a lot of community engagement over the past few months. Um our shop small efforts, including the Stockbridge Small Business Blitz and Small Business Saturday, were very, very successful. Um I want to thank all of you who may have participated and/or helped. [0:26:10, 0:26:17]: Help spread the word about our new Shop Small app. There was also a a new [0:26:18, 0:26:19]: element to our [0:26:19, 0:26:34]: promotional activities and was very successful. Um we had close to 300 um, I guess, unique users, new people that were introduced to our promotion. And um [0:26:35, 0:26:43]: thousands of um clicks and um searches through that particular app. So we were really excited about that. [0:26:43, 0:26:50]: And we look forward to continuing with the app because uh we would like to eventually, as I've told you before. [0:26:50, 0:26:57]: to phase out the the physical passport that we've used in the past, um, or at least um [0:26:57, 0:27:01]: limit the number that we have to print because it is expensive to print. [0:27:01, 0:27:03]: And um [0:27:03, 0:27:14]: make this something that um you can literally have in the palm of your hand and be able to participate through your smartphone or other um electronic device. [0:27:15, 0:27:16]: And um [0:27:16, 0:27:36]: Lisa just wanted to give a report. Lisa will be out of the office until February. She has had to have not series, but a medical procedure. So she will be off of her feet for a while. And we miss her dearly in the Main Street program office, but she's doing [0:27:36, 0:27:46]: fine and um checks in regularly as I told you we were just on the phone a few minutes ago. Um so I'm looking forward to her coming back to the office and [0:27:47, 0:27:53]: We will be planning an open house for the community to come see the new [0:27:53, 0:27:57]: Um building the renovations. [0:27:57, 0:28:04]: But I do want to wait until Lisa is back in the office. So we're looking at probably the end of February for that and [0:28:04, 0:28:14]: Of course we can't do that until we have our furniture. So um hopefully that will be delivered um by then as well, but we're planning for something at the end of February. [0:28:17, 0:28:19]: And that's all I have to report right now. [0:28:21, 0:28:28]: Thank you, Kier. Any any questions or comments for uh regarding the Main Street updates? Yes, I do. Thank you. [0:28:28, 0:28:29]: Go ahead, Councilman. [0:28:29, 0:28:38]: Uh yeah, that was a good update in terms of the it's good to see the new board members being sworn in last night. Uh does that bring you to a full board at this point? [0:28:39, 0:28:40]: Yes. [0:28:41, 0:28:49]: Excellent, excellent. Okay. So certainly now we can try to pick off a few over here. Be able to uh help assist us do what we do. [0:28:49, 0:28:51]: So uh in terms of [0:28:51, 0:28:57]: The building, it is the Ted Strickland Welcome Center. Is that correct? Or is that how is it? [0:28:57, 0:28:59]: Well, um [0:28:59, 0:29:10]: Our board meets on Friday. Um our regularly scheduled meeting is Friday and we are going to be discussing just that. Um the name of the building. There have been some um [0:29:10, 0:29:13]: suggestions and um [0:29:13, 0:29:15]: We're also gonna be um [0:29:15, 0:29:20]: Talking to our um new economic development director, he has some ideas about that as well. [0:29:21, 0:29:21]: Um [0:29:21, 0:29:30]: And we're gonna make recommendations to the council and ultimately the city council will decide what they would like to um name that particular building. [0:29:31, 0:29:47]: But we do know that community Ted Strickland Community Center is a misnomer now. So we want to make sure that we are identifying that we've created a welcome center and a pla a base of operations for downtown development. [0:29:47, 0:30:07]: and um our main street activities. So we're going to um try to come up with some some better, I guess, um names that would be more um appropriate for the building. Of course, the building was named after um I guess a beloved community member. So we don't necessarily [0:30:07, 0:30:13]: want to take the name Ted Strickland off the building, but we've got to kind of figure out how to um [0:30:14, 0:30:26]: You keep the name, but also make sure that the community knows what that building's purpose is and how they can be engaged with that facility as well. [0:30:27, 0:30:32]: Right. And the purpose is to be a welcome center. Is that correct? That's what we tried the idea is. [0:30:33, 0:30:45]: Yeah, down uh we had originally stated that we would like for that to be the um downtown-based welcome center and um base of operations for all downtown development activity. [0:30:46, 0:31:06]: Right, right, okay. Well it's certainly it'll come to the council to totally um you guys bring some ideas to the table. Just seems appropriate. I just think there would be some uproar where we try to take Mr. Strickland's name off the building. So right, we don't keep the call. [0:31:06, 0:31:17]: community member. So we definitely won't be doing that, but we do need to have something that identifies the build into the community as what its purpose will be. [0:31:18, 0:31:22]: Absolutely, absolutely. Okay. Uh thank you so much. I appreciate it. [0:31:23, 0:31:28]: No problem. Chair Custom, if I could, he was also the city manager for 25 years. Right. [0:31:29, 0:31:30]: Right. [0:31:31, 0:31:37]: So again, a b I guess a beloved member of the community. So we don't want to in any way disparage that. [0:31:39, 0:31:39]: Right. [0:31:40, 0:31:40]: All right. [0:31:42, 0:31:56]: Thank you, Franessa, for that. Yeah, I was doing a quick Google search and apparently he was also a teacher in Stockbridge for many years before he was the city manager. So yeah. Any other questions or comments regarding the main street updates? [0:31:58, 0:32:05]: Um I've just one one comment. Have you decided on uh operating hours and days for the community for the welcome center? [0:32:05, 0:32:13]: Um we are going to um be discussing that as well with the economic new economic development director. [0:32:13, 0:32:14]: Um [0:32:15, 0:32:20]: You know, we've never had a welcome center in the city of Stockbridge before, so [0:32:20, 0:32:34]: Um, we've got to kind of discuss that and look at the models that are um in neighboring cities. Um, I used to run the welcome center for the city of McDonough and for the city of Grim Griffin. I co-ran that welcome center. So [0:32:34, 0:32:48]: I have some experience with, you know, normal hours for welcome centers, but that is also on the agenda for our meeting with the new economic development director. [0:32:50, 0:32:53]: His office will be based out of that building as well. [0:32:53, 0:32:54]: All right, thank you. [0:32:54, 0:33:14]: And in in one of the earlier plans, it was um mentioned that the DDA's office would, I mean, we don't really have an office per se, but we do have files. And um, you know, and previously, you know, before before COVID and all that, we did have our meetings, you know, we we utilize city. [0:33:14, 0:33:28]: hall for our meeting space and those types of things. Is that still an option for the DDA to utilize the uh the welcome center for whatever office facilities the DDA might need? [0:33:28, 0:33:37]: Yes, definitely. And when we designed the facility, we made sure that there was um adequate um space for [0:33:37, 0:33:44]: um DDA to house their files or any equipment or um any um things that you might need to store. [0:33:45, 0:33:48]: And of course you all would be able to utilize the [0:33:48, 0:34:00]: very very nice um conference room that um has been um designed for that particular building so um i think that [0:34:00, 0:34:04]: Um, you all will get a lot of use out of the building as well. [0:34:04, 0:34:06]: Okay. Just bring you in lawn chair for now. [0:34:07, 0:34:11]: Well we have seats, they're just borrowed. I'm teasing. I'm teasing. [0:34:12, 0:34:26]: No, it's too bad that you didn't have that, you know, with problems, but under I understand the I understand the supply chain issues. But actually the chairs are actually the chairs that we're we did receive our chairs. We just did receive our desk and tables. [0:34:26, 0:34:27]: All right. [0:34:28, 0:34:40]: Very good. All right. Well we'll move on to uh facade grant updates. Um I don't have any updates. Bob, do you have any uh further updates on the facade grant? I'm not aware that we received any applications or anything further on that. [0:34:40, 0:34:41]: Uh yeah. [0:34:42, 0:34:57]: My knowledge, we have not received any others. Okay. And as far as the next I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off. Oh yeah, I I I guess we're we're we're I guess the next step would probably be, you know, we once we get our logo and everything to develop some um [0:34:57, 0:34:58]: Marketing materials. [0:34:59, 0:35:18]: Exactly. That was exactly the point I was about to make. Yeah, where that was what that was our predecessor uh activity to um get that logo and then we'll get our that's going to be our top priority is to market the uh facade grant uh program so that we can uh start utilizing those funds and sprucing up the uh downtown district. [0:35:19, 0:35:27]: All right, and that brings us to um city staff updates. Kira, you've already given the updates for Main Street. Is there anything else you wanted to share from a city staff perspective? [0:35:27, 0:35:47]: There was one other um Main Street report note. Um, as I told you, Lisa was communicating with me right when it was time for me to come on. Um, she sent me an email just to give you an idea about um the app. There were 283, I said close to 300, so 283 unique users that had a [0:35:47, 0:35:51]: Total of 5,244 engagements. [0:35:52, 0:35:59]: So for a first time app, we thought that that was um pretty good. So we hope to build on that and um [0:36:00, 0:36:04]: I know um councilman Alexander is very savvy about um [0:36:04, 0:36:12]: the social media aspect and app usage. So um hopefully that is something we can definitely build on. [0:36:12, 0:36:32]: Right. As far as um staff um updates, the only update that I really had was um that the new economic development director had been hired. I wasn't sure if he would have been able to attend the meeting. He had told me that there was a conflict with another meeting that was um going, I think the planning commission, but he was here, so he made his own. [0:36:32, 0:36:33]: announcement. [0:36:34, 0:36:34]: Great. [0:36:35, 0:36:51]: Thank you for that. And I wish Lisa full and speedy recovery. We'll look forward to seeing her back at full swing. All right, um staff update. So that moves us to city council updates. So councilman, um anything you'd like to share with the group? [0:36:51, 0:36:55]: Yeah, we got some really good news. I think I included you on the email. [0:36:55, 0:37:15]: That was coming. We finally got uh the page has been turned. Things are very exciting that are going on in downtown. Uh right now at Mart uh 118 Martin Luther King Senior Heritage Trail, the old Stock Ridge Florist. Uh there's a restaurant under construction right now uh in the building. [0:37:15, 0:37:35]: Mr. Sylvan rented rented it out to leased it out to a restaurant owner and they're in the process of um doing the uh interior construction uh on the building. Uh I was told that the restaurant could be as open as early as uh 60 days, 60 to 90 days. [0:37:35, 0:37:55]: Uh with plans and everything being submitted uh to the city uh already. So that's very exciting. Secondarily uh to that, uh the Kathy's floor shop uh you know uh was sold uh again to Mr. Sylvan. He bought the uh building and uh there was a [0:37:55, 0:38:15]: A new florist that will be coming to take over uh that particular property. It will not be Kathy's Florest anymore. Uh, there was another local florist that was looking for space that will be expanding uh into downtown, and uh they will be taking over that space. So we will have a florist in downtown uh to support. [0:38:15, 0:38:35]: So, you know, that's something that where we had two flower shops and then we went to zero. So now we'll have a florist that we can use and hopefully support and bring that energy uh back to downtown uh as well. So those are some exciting uh developments. And I actually got a chance to see some. [0:38:35, 0:38:49]: plans for the fire station and it it is amazing. There's gonna be a two-story uh the the building will be one story in itself, but there'll be a two-story deck and that second deck will form function sort of like a rooftop. [0:38:50, 0:39:10]: uh lounge area. Uh uh and below that there'll be some outside din curbside dining uh in the restaurant facility uh as the building is being in the as the concept that I saw. Now they said they fully expect to be able to move forward with something significant uh at that location. [0:39:10, 0:39:16]: And uh in excess of a million dollars that they will be spending to uh rehab the building. But [0:39:16, 0:39:19]: Again, at this point the plan is to have it be [0:39:19, 0:39:22]: A single story and then it will be like a double deck. [0:39:25, 0:39:29]: uh on the side of the building facing the Love Street side and that second deck [0:39:35, 0:39:40]: So that's exciting to know that three different businesses uh should be open. [0:39:43, 0:39:48]: Within the next calendar year uh in downtown after the struggle that we have seen um [0:39:50, 0:40:00]: uh sorry my internet I don't know what's gonna hopefully uh you got most of what I'm saying uh in terms of what uh the meeting uh the the meat of the information were and as you can see [0:40:03, 0:40:05]: See if you've driven through downtown. [0:40:06, 0:40:08]: Uh down East Atlanta Road, the construction is going. [0:40:11, 0:40:16]: on hot and heavy and trust me I had to fight ten foot paths and not five foot sidewalks. [0:40:18, 0:40:30]: They had started to put five foot sidewalks down and they had to tear them up and then they re-leveled and down East Atlanta Road. If you go down there now from East Atlanta Road on down to past the um the [0:40:32, 0:40:35]: The um I think it's c can't name it the building down there, the bit busy [0:40:37, 0:40:38]: The herb shop. [0:40:48, 0:40:56]: Be added to East Atlanta Road. Uh that turn lane will extend down back to Love Street. And so people won't have to sit. [0:40:58, 0:41:02]: there and wait on cars turning left. They'll be able to take that right on East Atlanta Road. [0:41:02, 0:41:03]: Uh oh. [0:41:05, 0:41:07]: significant mover of traffic. [0:41:13, 0:41:19]: All of that is about the connect connectivity uh and the walkability of downtown because when you come into downtown. [0:41:20, 0:41:31]: We're going to have electric car charging stations installed uh at the amphitheater. So if you're coming in, you're driving your Tesla or you're driving your Chevy Vote. [0:41:32, 0:41:32]: Or [0:41:32, 0:41:36]: Your electric E V vehicle, you can literally park at the amphitheater. [0:41:36, 0:41:38]: Charge your vehicle. [0:41:39, 0:41:40]: Get on the walking pass. [0:41:40, 0:41:42]: You know, walk down East Atlanta. [0:41:42, 0:41:45]: And then uh there'll there'll be trails. [0:41:45, 0:41:47]: There are trails on the right side. [0:41:48, 0:41:49]: Of um [0:41:49, 0:41:54]: The amp where the amphitheater is, uh, when you're coming down the pass-through road. [0:41:54, 0:41:59]: Uh but there'll be other trails that will be extended on the left hand side. So there'll be [0:42:00, 0:42:01]: Параллел трел. [0:42:01, 0:42:03]: Going on both sides of that through streak. [0:42:04, 0:42:05]: Down to [0:42:05, 0:42:06]: North Lee Street. [0:42:07, 0:42:10]: Those sidewalks will be extended in both directions. [0:42:11, 0:42:14]: Down uh north toward Bryant Street. [0:42:14, 0:42:17]: It will be a ten foot path there and then north. [0:42:17, 0:42:18]: And doing self. [0:42:19, 0:42:20]: Excuse me, two [0:42:22, 0:42:23]: North Erie Boulevard. [0:42:24, 0:42:29]: The church kind of provo uh kind of performed a little kind of caused a little bit of [0:42:30, 0:42:30]: Um [0:42:31, 0:42:33]: consternation, but we worked it out where [0:42:33, 0:42:36]: We should at least have eight feet wide. [0:42:36, 0:42:39]: uh past the entire length of it. [0:42:39, 0:42:44]: Because some of the uh ten foot would have cut into this some of their property. [0:42:44, 0:42:47]: And we just kinda had to negotiate with them so [0:42:47, 0:42:49]: We'll have at least eight foot on that. [0:42:49, 0:42:51]: Side uh bordering the church. [0:42:51, 0:42:53]: And as you go across. [0:42:54, 0:42:54]: Um [0:42:55, 0:42:57]: They're working on realigning. [0:42:57, 0:42:58]: South Lee Street. [0:42:59, 0:43:02]: You know that if you go down there, it's been very disjointed. [0:43:02, 0:43:06]: Uh where the traffic where North and South Lee Street do not line up. [0:43:07, 0:43:22]: After the close of the construction, North and South Lee Street will line up. There will be a four-way intersection at North and South Lee Street. And that traffic light will regulate both sides. Because when you come off of North Lee Street headed south, [0:43:22, 0:43:26]: There's a stop sign there basically and you gotta work your way [0:43:26, 0:43:29]: through there to try to figure out how to get out. There was a safety issue. [0:43:30, 0:43:31]: Uh especially [0:43:31, 0:43:46]: uh during the concerts. On the other side over there, as you know, the uh the Henry County STEM school is coming. So this will help in the traffic flow uh as when the STEM school arrives. And on even on that side, uh on um [0:43:46, 0:44:02]: South Lee Street, there will be a 10-foot path on one side leading back to where the old Patrick Henry High is and the new STEM school. And on the other side, facing the police department, there will be an eight-foot path on that side. [0:44:02, 0:44:03]: So anybody [0:44:04, 0:44:05]: Coming to downtown. [0:44:05, 0:44:09]: will be able to walk it, run it, ride their bike on it. [0:44:09, 0:44:11]: And potentially have a golf cart. [0:44:11, 0:44:12]: If you [0:44:13, 0:44:17]: thinking that way to be able to traverse the downtown, especially like during the concerts. [0:44:17, 0:44:19]: And you have senior citizens down there. [0:44:19, 0:44:21]: When the parking gets jammed up. [0:44:21, 0:44:25]: We plan on having uh the shuttles out there. [0:44:25, 0:44:28]: or the little carts or the buggies out there to be able to go. [0:44:28, 0:44:30]: And assist those seniors. [0:44:30, 0:44:34]: Where they are so they don't have to ride in the street, they'll be able to ride on the sidewalk. [0:44:34, 0:44:36]: To be able to come and uh [0:44:36, 0:44:37]: Assist those things yourself. [0:44:38, 0:44:40]: They are not in a position where [0:44:40, 0:44:42]: Uh, they have to walk a long distance so. [0:44:42, 0:44:45]: There will be golf carts out there to be able to [0:44:45, 0:44:47]: uh a system to do [0:44:47, 0:44:48]: Well what they [0:44:48, 0:44:50]: To get to where they're going to. [0:44:50, 0:44:53]: And last night we'll just close by saying [0:44:53, 0:45:00]: I was ho I hope you were watching the meeting last night. And I'm glad this only seven people on on this call right there. [0:45:00, 0:45:02]: Because what I'm about to say. [0:45:02, 0:45:06]: They talked about it and uh Mr. Harold Young is now officially [0:45:06, 0:45:08]: He's over our amphitheater. He's um [0:45:08, 0:45:14]: event he is uh our director over the amphitheater or the manager over the amphitheater. [0:45:14, 0:45:16]: He brought his team in. [0:45:16, 0:45:18]: And uh they are gonna do an outstanding job. [0:45:19, 0:45:21]: The working on finalizing the concert. [0:45:22, 0:45:25]: series. Uh it was some amazing names that they threw out there last night. [0:45:26, 0:45:28]: Uh Fantasia is coming with Joe. [0:45:29, 0:45:31]: Uh, if you know who Joe is, the R and B singer. [0:45:32, 0:45:33]: We have um [0:45:34, 0:45:37]: Uh certainly a lot of X that are coming that are powerhouse. [0:45:37, 0:45:41]: Uh boys to men was coming along with Joe to see. [0:45:41, 0:45:44]: Uh those are big name acts, baby faces coming. [0:45:45, 0:45:46]: Uh, along with Stokely. [0:45:47, 0:45:47]: Um [0:45:48, 0:45:50]: Patty LaBelle will be closing out the [0:45:50, 0:45:53]: Uh ri would would would be potentially the end of the year. [0:45:53, 0:45:56]: And there were several others. It is really gonna be [0:45:56, 0:45:58]: Highlight cameo. [0:45:58, 0:45:59]: Well, it's coming. [0:46:00, 0:46:03]: So there was a lot of names that were thrown out there to wet the appetite. [0:46:04, 0:46:08]: And this year's concert series we have many more concerts that we had. [0:46:08, 0:46:13]: in the past because we had a team that was able been working on this for months. [0:46:13, 0:46:16]: Uh, in order to line this up and we're getting some of the best talent. [0:46:16, 0:46:18]: uh available to bring [0:46:18, 0:46:32]: uh interest into downtown. So again, the there should be a lot of life in downtown, a lot of foot traffic. And uh hopefully we can uh start talking about enticing these folk individuals to [0:46:32, 0:46:35]: Come early before the concert, hang out at the new restaurants. [0:46:36, 0:46:36]: Or come. [0:46:37, 0:46:39]: And then spend some time in downtown. [0:46:39, 0:46:42]: Uh even on the off concert days walking and [0:46:42, 0:46:50]: uh a tra uh you know, exercising in the downtown area so to increase foot traffic on an ongoing basis. So [0:46:50, 0:46:52]: This is an exciting time. [0:46:52, 0:46:55]: Uh, to be downtown and understand the things that [0:46:55, 0:46:57]: Uh we have going on [0:46:57, 0:46:59]: uh in the area and we [0:46:59, 0:47:15]: I understand that there's certainly a lot of interest in potentially bringing uh nice residential uh into downtown as well. So it's extremely exciting uh time and uh hopefully uh we'll see a lot of this come to fruition within the next year. [0:47:19, 0:47:32]: And certainly I wanna welcome uh Mr. Kim Alaunch to the city. Uh we tell it was great when I saw Orlando on there, man. That was all I needed to see. If you can work in Orlando and economic development and Disney's back [0:47:32, 0:47:38]: Backyard, you you know what's going on because trust me, you don't want to hire the best folks in order to do [0:47:38, 0:47:46]: or and to work with uh th that type those type of entities. So we understand where we are. And certainly we want to be able to welcome [0:47:46, 0:48:06]: The new board in the city, which is the citywide development authority, to assist like we do in downtown. The Citywide Development Authority will be assisting businesses that we can't touch up North Henry Boulevard and in those areas. They will be able to offer those businesses, facade grants, and they will be able [0:48:06, 0:48:12]: to offer economic development uh opportunities outside of the general downtown area. [0:48:12, 0:48:13]: And uh [0:48:14, 0:48:15]: Their focus is [0:48:15, 0:48:35]: You know, the Heron County Development Authority's done some nice things, but their focus has been a lot on warehousing and logistics. Uh, we want to be able to recruit some film and TV industry. Uh, we want to be able to pursue some technology jobs, infrastructure, medical uh type jobs to be able to bring some uh white [0:48:35, 0:48:48]: collar jobs and professional services industries here, financial services, because I posted just the other day and I want y'all to pay attention. And this is we gotta sell this a lot. Stock bridge is one of the most fiber [0:48:49, 0:49:04]: optic intensive communities in Metro Atlanta, bar nine. You know, just the other day, uh I just uh switched over my services to AT<unk>T fiber because ATT fiber is available to most of Sockbridge right now. [0:49:05, 0:49:08]: Uh think about that. My neighbor works in film and TV. [0:49:08, 0:49:22]: He gets 10 gigabyte speed. He's able to download large movie files in just mere minutes. Yes, ATT Fiverr is available downtown, okay, uh to us right now. So [0:49:22, 0:49:42]: Understanding those things are available to businesses in the Eagles Landing area, downtown, all over the city. Uh in even in the areas where uh not ATT fiber should be available in about 95% of the city. And even and even not ATT uh is not the only option. We have spectrum fiber. [0:49:42, 0:49:48]: in areas all over the city and if we in the other areas that have Xfinity they have fiber so [0:49:49, 0:50:09]: All over the city, we are primed for any businesses to come in to take advantage of that uh at our hotels, at our you know, stays, and in in our corporate environment to be able to track these businesses. And many of these businesses in the medical, where we have Northside Hospital now, we have Well Star, we have [0:50:09, 0:50:20]: Have Emery expanding in all in the Eagles Landing area near Piedmont Henry. They're doing that and they're coming there because they have the technology infrastructure. [0:50:20, 0:50:22]: Already in place to be able to do that. [0:50:22, 0:50:24]: And like I said, my [0:50:24, 0:50:28]: Internet super fast been that way. Have a choice between spectrum. [0:50:28, 0:50:29]: And I have a choice between [0:50:30, 0:50:31]: Uh AT and T Fiber. [0:50:31, 0:50:35]: E either one or I want. Spectrum is delivering up to five hundred. [0:50:35, 0:50:36]: megabytes here. [0:50:37, 0:50:39]: And then above for business and we're [0:50:39, 0:50:44]: uh able to get like I said, my neighbor's getting 10 gigs and he's doing downloading movie files. [0:50:44, 0:50:53]: That's extremely important. If you work in film and TV and you know how intense that is, certainly you need to understand that that is a huge advantage. [0:50:54, 0:50:59]: And go talk to the people like right over in the Lake Spee area that just message me on Facebook. [0:50:59, 0:51:00]: Yes, yesterday. [0:51:01, 0:51:08]: They're dealing with a huge issue with slow internet where they're unable living in the country club. [0:51:08, 0:51:10]: House just outside the city. [0:51:10, 0:51:14]: But right in the city, we have what they what they die for. [0:51:14, 0:51:15]: Because [0:51:15, 0:51:18]: We worked. I remember it and almost close by saying in twenty sixteen. [0:51:19, 0:51:21]: We in twenty seven, that was one of the first things that we did. [0:51:22, 0:51:23]: And we invited AT and T T. [0:51:24, 0:51:28]: We invited Spectrum, Infinity, all of those people to downtown. [0:51:28, 0:51:32]: And we told them that we wanted all the city buildings connected to fiber. [0:51:32, 0:51:34]: They came, they challenged to do so. [0:51:35, 0:51:37]: And then I met Dr. Daniel Howard. [0:51:38, 0:51:40]: Uh at one of the GMA meetings and he's [0:51:40, 0:51:43]: Now, I told him at that time about our challenges with [0:51:44, 0:51:49]: Uh fiber and uh slow we will had dial up about that time in twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen. [0:51:50, 0:51:52]: And he talked concast into [0:51:53, 0:51:55]: uh guaranteed into say into [0:51:56, 0:51:56]: Committing [0:51:57, 0:52:01]: To provide fiber to the entire three oh two eight one zip code. [0:52:02, 0:52:07]: When they did that, ATT responded because ATT was not gonna be outdone. [0:52:07, 0:52:09]: That's what brought us into. [0:52:09, 0:52:12]: That leadership role when Spectrum rolled out. [0:52:12, 0:52:13]: Five G. [0:52:13, 0:52:19]: They wrote out rolled it out in stockbridge first, and they opened up their flagship store. [0:52:19, 0:52:23]: on Hudson Bridge in the Walmart complex where the Bank of America is. [0:52:24, 0:52:27]: because it was so fiber intensive here it was easy for them to do. [0:52:28, 0:52:29]: That's where we are now. [0:52:29, 0:52:32]: And that's what our carrot is to be able to attract businesses. [0:52:33, 0:52:34]: To downtown. [0:52:34, 0:52:40]: because they could get the very best in uh technology infrastructure. Thank you. [0:52:41, 0:52:53]: Thank you, Councilman. That's uh certainly a good uh development incentive. And um thank you for the other updates. I especially appreciate the uh the walkability factor and the work that you've done in that area of the downtown. [0:52:53, 0:52:56]: Any questions or comments for uh councilman? [0:52:58, 0:53:18]: I I am hoping to move to the next item of new business, which is the officer elections. Well, and and we have a board member who does need to drop off very soon. So um uh if it's okay, we'll move on to the next agenda item, which is the officer elections. Um we are uh our bylaws indicate that we are we should be uh electing officer positions, chair, vice president. [0:53:18, 0:53:25]: Chair, Treasurer, and Secretary in the first meeting of each new year. [0:53:25, 0:53:45]: We uh I I uh we uh there's a couple of things I want to say to that. Uh the first item is that, and I've informed some of you of this, is um I need to step back from chair. Um I've I've served now for um uh some time. I've been serving on this DDA for now um a little over. [0:53:45, 0:54:05]: Little over five years. And my uh work and personal responsibilities have become to where I cannot give the position the attention that it deserves. The other thing I'll mention in relation to the officer elections is that you know we have one potentially too vacant. [0:54:05, 0:54:25]: Vacancies. And we've had one vacancy with when Samiqwa left several months ago. I think there is the potential that the council may fill a position. I understand that there's an applicant who is interested in serving in the DDA. So there's two things I'd like to cover today. [0:54:25, 0:54:45]: We have a quorum. The first is um, I'd like to uh ask the board if we would consider postponing the decision for the officer elections for our next meeting with the hope and expectation that we will have another board member to um you know assign the officer roles from. So let me start with that. [0:54:45, 0:54:49]: Yeah, so I'll make a move that we postpone the officer elections until the February meeting. [0:54:51, 0:54:53]: Okay. [0:54:53, 0:54:56]: Okay, I think I've heard from that was Barber or Fran. [0:54:58, 0:54:59]: Barber. Oh, she [0:55:00, 0:55:01]: There's both. [0:55:02, 0:55:10]: All right. We'll mark it down as Barber. So uh thank you. Any any other discussion regarding uh postponing the officer elections? [0:55:12, 0:55:23]: All right. Uh all those in favor, please raise your hand. And Barber and Fran, if since you're not on video, I'll start with you, Barber. Uh yay or nay. [0:55:26, 0:55:26]: Yay. [0:55:28, 0:55:29]: And Fran. [0:55:29, 0:55:30]: Yes or no? [0:55:31, 0:55:32]: Yay. [0:55:32, 0:55:52]: All right, very good. So that's unanimous to postpone the officer elections until February. Thank you all for that. I think that gives us a little bit of breathing room and uh to think about you know how we'll reshape the the the those positions. The other thing I want uh the board's um um um to weigh in the the DEA to weigh in on is [0:55:52, 0:56:12]: Is um uh Mr. Machel Sears. Um he has been absent at the last, I think, five meetings. Um he has been unfortunately unresponsive to my uh attempts at communicating with him. I don't know if anyone else has had communication with Mr. Sears. Um I decided [0:56:12, 0:56:32]: I don't really have an indication if uh he's choose choosing to resign or not, but um without any response, uh I did check with our attorney uh as far as you know, is there any kind of legal basis as to what to do in this type of uh situation? He says there's nothing really written into the state law that defines what the action is. [0:56:32, 0:56:52]: But it's ultimately up to the city council to uh consider the to consider this to be an abandonment of the uh position. There's a general expectation that when you're serving on the board, you that you should not miss more than two meetings sequentially. And this has exceeded that amount. So I would at least [0:56:52, 0:57:12]: least like the board's expression, if you will, that we would support, being that there hasn't been any communication that we would support, that we would consider this an abandonment of the position and turn it over to the city council to consider refilling the position. [0:57:12, 0:57:28]: So I guess that's my motion is for the board to consider um Mr. Sears' um board position as abandoned. And um and I welcome any thoughts or questions or a second on that. If I could. [0:57:29, 0:57:42]: I please go ahead, Councillor. You know, I don't know because we don't know. I don't know what happened. I don't think any of us know what happened. Right. Could he be sick? Could he be, I mean, we're dealing with all this COVID and all that stuff. [0:57:42, 0:57:44]: Does anybody know? [0:57:44, 0:57:45]: So [0:57:45, 0:57:49]: I think uh maybe we might all try sending them a certified letter. [0:57:50, 0:57:54]: I mean his office is the office still in downtown. I don't know. I haven't been in contact with him. [0:57:54, 0:57:57]: To see whether or not he's still at his office. [0:57:57, 0:58:00]: To understand what is going on'cause [0:58:00, 0:58:04]: Obviously it's not like him and he's been serving on the board for a long time. [0:58:04, 0:58:06]: But before we go into [0:58:06, 0:58:10]: Uh, you know, consider the pizza position of band and I think. [0:58:10, 0:58:12]: Probably should seek additional legal counsel to see. [0:58:13, 0:58:19]: What the whether maybe we might need to send him a certified letter. Maybe somebody need to go over to his office to see see if he's over there. [0:58:20, 0:58:23]: Uh to see what is going on and to see. [0:58:23, 0:58:26]: What has happened? Uh I would hate to say that we went took this route. [0:58:27, 0:58:31]: And we found out the guy was in the hospital or something and we did not know about that. [0:58:31, 0:58:32]: So [0:58:33, 0:58:36]: I think we want to do our due diligence before we go down that road. [0:58:36, 0:58:38]: To ensure that [0:58:38, 0:58:58]: It's it doesn't come back to bite us and we found out he's laid up in the hospital somewhere and we're throwing him off the board, you know. Right. Um, I I agree and I I support your position. I will add that uh, you know, I had regular communications with Mr. Sears via, you know, text and voice. Um, and he's since been unresponsive. I personally [0:58:58, 0:59:11]: I personally went to his office and left him a note. And uh that was about a month ago, and I've not had a response. Uh, I spoke with someone at his, you know, because he has kind of a shared office space, and I spoke with uh [0:59:11, 0:59:31]: I I'm not sure if she was a manager or uh person. She actually let me into the office so she had keys. And so, you know, she says he's there, you know, and that she would deliver the note to him personally. So um I that's what I've done. And I uh I I agree with you, uh councilman, that we should do our due diligence and if uh [0:59:31, 0:59:48]: a certified letter to his office. I'm happy with that being the next step. And but I I would phrase it in such being that there hasn't been any communication that if he does not respond within a certain amount of time, that it would be considered an abandonment of office. [0:59:50, 0:59:52]: Yeah, unless you recommend differently. [0:59:54, 1:00:03]: I don't have a recommendation on a on the language. I would ask the attorney to help you help craft that letter to make sure it was legally sound. [1:00:03, 1:00:09]: All right, very good. Well then I'll reach out to our attorney to to draft the language and um and and [1:00:09, 1:00:11]: that to his uh business address. [1:00:12, 1:00:13]: Thank you. [1:00:13, 1:00:16]: Any other comments or questions uh around that point? [1:00:19, 1:00:21]: I I agree, I agree. Yeah, that that uh [1:00:24, 1:00:44]: All right. So that'll be our next point of action. All right. Thank you everyone for that. So I'll move on to old business. Um MLK Senior Memorial Public Art update. We do have the final um proposal that was uh prepared by our consultant, Ellen Parker. Um that's on me to schedule some time with the [1:00:44, 1:01:04]: city council to present that. Kira, I will probably want to get with you andor uh Lisa and sort of coordinate our presentation and decide you know when it would be appropriate. So I'll I'll leave that you know sort of between you and I since we've been working together on that piece uh as far as the timing and our next step. [1:01:04, 1:01:06]: But we have what we [1:01:06, 1:01:26]: Um paid for, in essence, from the consultant. The new DDA logo, I did uh we you know, I mentioned that earlier that we did pay for our package for a rhyme and reason. I will reach out to them to see if we can get the actual uh digital files for that. Um, on the next item, the TSW master plan. [1:01:26, 1:01:46]: And this is an item that I'm going to discuss with Mr. Mr. Lance, that, you know, just to bring him up to speed as far as where we were with the downtown master plan and to make sure he and I and uh Mr. Gardner are in alignment as far as what our next step. [1:01:46, 1:02:06]: My expectation is that we're going to proceed with TSW for the master plan. There was a discussion with Mr. Gardner and I had about a month ago to make sure that we would be. I know that he was wanting to make efforts for. [1:02:06, 1:02:17]: uh um establishing a tax allocate uh tax allocation district. So I want to make sure that the master plan that we conceive is in alignment with his goals in that regard. [1:02:18, 1:02:38]: And uh the last item I have is the uh committee to or the intergovernmental agreement with the city. Um councilman uh in particular, you know, there was some exchange that came back from the city's attorneys uh questioning a few points, which I've responded to. Has there been any other update on that? I you know that I'm I feel [1:02:38, 1:02:50]: like that's we've we've stated our position and what we hope to be in the IGA. We clarified the two points that were in question. Is there anything further as far as to get that uh established? [1:02:50, 1:02:53]: I just refer to Miss Holliday. You have any updates on this? [1:02:56, 1:02:58]: I do not um [1:02:58, 1:03:07]: I believe that's I'm not I don't recall who, but someone was going to reach out to Councilwoman Gantt to try to get clarification on the language. [1:03:08, 1:03:08]: Where [1:03:08, 1:03:13]: The city attorney could be you utilized by the D DA. [1:03:14, 1:03:18]: And not that it be a demand that that be the case, but [1:03:18, 1:03:19]: Uh yeah. [1:03:20, 1:03:22]: Use their services here and there. [1:03:23, 1:03:25]: That's the last thing that I recall. [1:03:25, 1:03:45]: Right. That that that is correct. That was a a response um to uh to the to the city's attorney that um that that was the basis for the for the position. Um how about I I reach out again to the city's attorney and um I'll certainly copy council. [1:03:45, 1:04:05]: Will McGantt to um weigh in if that was, you know, she had any more comments or feedback on that. But I'd rather not strike that particular point out unless that's the the city is really you know firm on that. I think it's a good practice to share services, you know, sharing resources. [1:04:05, 1:04:10]: where where appropriate. And you know, that includes, you know. [1:04:10, 1:04:30]: Things like, you know, legal counsel, if if there's if it's certainly if there's a project that we're working on together between the city and the DDA, there's no, you know, I would I would say, you know, in certain use cases, it's not really necessary for the DDA to incur a separate expense to call our own attorney. [1:04:30, 1:04:35]: when we could utilize the city's attorney for a shared um [1:04:35, 1:04:55]: um you know event of some sort. So I I'd rather not exclude that. But you know, I'm I'm certainly willing to discuss it and and and and figure out a way forward. But I think the larger request is that we go ahead and get an IGA established. I think it's just a good practice. And [1:04:55, 1:04:57]: And I'd like to pursue that to its conclusion. [1:04:58, 1:05:06]: So I'll I'll I'll follow up with uh that last thread and see if we can bring that to um to the you know to a conclusion. [1:05:08, 1:05:14]: All right, and those were the uh updates I had under uh old business. Um [1:05:14, 1:05:21]: Is there um anything else we want to cover before we um motion to uh adjourn the meeting? [1:05:26, 1:05:29]: All right. Well, let's hear a motion to adjourn the meeting. [1:05:32, 1:05:34]: Bob, I saw you move. [1:05:35, 1:05:42]: I can hear you. Uh I I I move that we adjourn the meeting. Very good. Thank you, sir. Any discussion? [1:05:44, 1:05:55]: All right. Those in favor to adjourn, please uh raise your hand and uh we'll have to hear from those who are voice only. So we'll start with uh Fran. [1:05:57, 1:05:59]: Okano Tari? Yes. [1:05:59, 1:06:03]: All right. And I I heard you as a yes and Barber. [1:06:04, 1:06:04]: Yes. [1:06:05, 1:06:13]: Very good. All right, everyone. Thank you for your time and service to the DDA. And I look forward to an exciting uh 2023. Have a great night. [1:06:13, 1:06:16]: Good night. Good night. Good night. I'll take care. You too.