09-12-13 Minutes

09-12-13 Minutes

Started at 6:10 and ended at 7:45

Attendance:

Tom Collard / Tom's Train Terminal

Rich Thomas / TechBox

Brian Byers / TechBox

Sandy Cheropovich / Sandy's Art Works

Nick Cheropovich / Sandy's Sign Works

Sarah Chapp / Confections Of A Cake Lover

Viki Allin / Creative Crust

Tim Kirk / Meadville Fine Art

Mary Kirk / Meadville Fine Art

Randy Byham / JCB Woodscript Ltd

Heather Reichel / Off Color Gallery

Diann Frampton / Art By Diann

Nancy Asmus / Nancy’s Under The Steps

Kay Coches / Park Ave. Cinema

Shaneka Butler / Ocean’s Cafe

Matteo Rachocki / Voodoo Brewery

Bill Grasinger / Hovis Interiors

John Prinkey / North American Karate And Fitness

Sarah Chapp / Confections Of A Cake Lover

Christine Yamrick / Chateau Christine

Diane Kerr / Jeron Jewelers

John Kerr / Jeron Jewelers

PARKING:

The following items were approved.

• A ‘Customer Parking Only’ zone that is in the heart of the business district.

--  The meters in these areas would be painted a different color.

--  The 'Customer Parking Only' zone would run along Chestnut from Main to Water.

Along Park Avenue from W. Center to Arch. Along Market from W. Center to Arch.

Along Water from Walnut to Arch. And would include the parking spaces around the Market House.

• Long term, 12 hour meters to accommodate part time employees.

• A tier system for tickets. Violating the ‘Customer Parking Only’ zone would be higher ($30.00) than regular expired meter at $7.00.

• Changing the hours that the meters are enforced from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm. to 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.

• A clear and concise definition for validating customers tickets.

• Business owners that need to park near their businesses for ‘Loading And Unloading’, need to get a uniform yearly pass to display in their window during times of Loading And Unloading.

• A clear definition of the rules of conduct for the Meter Men.

• All Meadville businesses, that meet the need to make deliveries within the downtown metered areas will be able to purchase ‘Delivery Passes’ the same as Windstream uses now. These passes are sold to Windstream for $10.00 a month.

A formal letter will be written and presented to City Council.

Note:

During the discussion, the explanation of what the current validation of tickets is. It was explained that in order to validate a customers parking, that customer must have put the full 50¢ into the meter and stayed at your place of business beyond the 2 hour meter limit.

LEROY STEARN’S BUSINESS ASSOCIATION:

We talked about the Business Association that is being started by Leroy Stearn. We compared his Association to the downtown development aspect of the Main Street Program and the DMBA to the promotion aspect of the same program. Tom Collard talked about the meeting he had with an Erie Association that was trying to achieve the same goals as Leroy’s association. We also talked about all our storefronts and what they need.

MAP:

Tim Kirk presented a rough draft of an 8-½ x 11, 4 panel brochure that would be a map for of the downtown business district.

- The area of the map would use the boundaries set up by the ‘Main Street’ program. North Street to Arch Street. Water Street to the Diamond.

- Advertising would be paid directly to the printer. Price of each ad would be based on the cost of the printing divided by the numbers of ads around the map.

- Ads could include QR codes that would link directly to each businesses web sites.

Discussions that stemmed from this topic:

- The use of QR codes on our storefronts that would lead customers to our web sites and a secondary QR code that would lead directly to the DMBA map, located on our Dot Com web site.

- The possible development of an app for the downtown with an interactive map.

WEBSITE:

- The name of the website was discussed. The only name that was talked about was Make It Meadville. Everyone like this name.

Note: In discussions after the meeting it became clear that in order to ‘choose’ a name that there needs to be more than one name put on the table. Make It Meadville is on hold until we can all have input and several different choices.

- Heather Reichel, from Off Color Gallery will be creating our Dot Com website. She will be using GoDaddy as our host.

ZOMBIE WALK:

The discussion started out by describing the roll the DMBA would play in creating events that benefitted the local charities.  - Events would be geared towards drawing customers into our brick and mortar stores.  - Events would benefit one or more local charities.  - Events would be engaging and entertaining to our customers.

Christine Yamrick of Chateau Christine would like to see a lot more activities for the Zombies to participate in. Like a Zombie Yell contest, either at Diamond Park or inside the Mall, depending on the weather. There was discussion about the first one being small and building. Advertising the Zombie Walk outside our area. Possibly changing the theme each year to keep it fresh. A Scarecrow Walk, etc…

There was a brief discussion regarding the insurance and auxiliary police. But since all that information is not available yet, there was limited discussion.

Squeeze will be painting faces inside the Mall and then at the Market House for the Zombie Walk.

It costs a lot of money to get a specific movie like ‘Rocky Horror’ so asking for sponsors to obtain specific movies brought up.

Other events were discussed:

Having a Doo Daa Walk in the spring.

A scavenger hunt, where customers would have to go into each store to obtain an item.

A customer appreciation week, with the cities permission, the meters would be bagged for a week and customers would be given items like the DMBA map and discount coupons for businesses throughout Meadville.

HEAVY-HANDED WAY THE CITY COMMUNICATE WITH IT’S CITIZENS:

There was a brief discussion about the need to address the way the city officials communicate with it’s citizens, from it’s official letters to the way it presents itself in newspaper interviews.

TWO MEETINGS A MONTH:

Matteo Rachock brought up the idea of having an E & I type meeting. This would allow each of the DMBA members to discuss their businesses so we would all get to know each other better and be able to recommend our businesses to each other's customers. Everyone needs to bring plenty of business cards to our meetings to share.

Diane Kerr brought up the idea of a mixer where we could mingle and get to know each other in a casual setting.

Two meetings would be set up similar to the way the city has their meetings. The second Thursday meeting would be the regular meeting and the fourth Thursday would be a type of study session.

ADVERTISING:

There was a little talk about advertising the Downtown Meadville Business Alliance but the main discussion was brought up by Bill Grasinger of Hovis Interiors.

The idea being that 3 or 4 businesses would group together for 1 TV ad. One ad with the cost divided up between 3 or 4 businesses. An example was given: Jeron Jewelers, Cobblestone Cottage and Gardens and Confections Of A Cake Lover.

Diane Kerr is going to talk to her TV sales rep for more details.

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After meeting chit chat:

Tim Kirk brought up the idea of kiosks that would be located in key locations throughout Meadville.

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The Downtown Meadville Business Alliance will be strong and grow with the involvement, communication and participation of it’s members. Keep up the enthusiasm. It’s contagious!

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List Of Members:

Academy Theatre

ARC of Crawford County

Art By Diann Frampton

Bill Lawrence Studio

CCHS Second Chance

CCHS Vet Hospital

Chateau Christine

Cobblestone Cottage And Gifts

Confections Of A Cake Lover

Creative Crust

Creative Expressions Of Art

Fine Print

Hovis Interiors

Market House Grille

Meadville Council On The Arts

Meadville Fine Art

Miller Brothers Staffing

Nancy's Under The Steps

Off Color Gallery

Orealia's Catering

Park Avenue Cinema

Pineo Law, LLC

Sandy's Artworks

Sandy's Signworks

Save Room For Dessert

Tattered Corners

Tech box

Tom's Train Terminal

Whole Darn Thing