November 12th Meeting Minutes

Minutes for the November 12th meeting.

We started our meeting by hearing from a representative from the area shopper. His name is Pete Mierke. He gave us an amazing quote for a full page ad for the Downtown Meadville Business Alliance. 2" x 3" ad black-and-white will be $40. This goes out to 38,000 people.

Heather Rachel presented draft on our website experiencemeadville.com. She showed how the website is interconnected with our own business websites or Facebook pages. She showed maps that she worked on and how they are integrated with each business. A parking map will show up with parking areas near each place of business. Heather has done an amazing job. The biggest challenge will be to now gather information. It will be up to each and every member to supply Heather information about our own businesses. Categories will be set up and if your business falls into one or more of these categories it is up to the businesses to supply that information to Heather.

Wlll done Heather!!!

We reviewed the Downtown Map that Tim Kirk is putting together for us. There was a lot of enthusiasm to advertise on the back of the map! The base of the map, that Tim created will be available for other organizations to utilize. He did a great job in drawing a ‘very’ accurate map of Downtown Meadville.

Next Andy Walker gave the talk about the Main Street program. It's history and how we, the downtown Meadville business alliance, can draw from that program.

The DMBA are using the same borders as the Main Street Program. The borders are defined by Walkablility, the Historic District, and it’s Charming. The areas along Park Avenue that are not in this Historic District, could be located in any city throughout the United States. Downtown Meadville is unique.

Christa Battin From the Meadville chamber of commerce spoke. She talked about the changes she is hoping to make in her new position. It is our intent for the DMBA to work closely with the Chamber of Commerce in the future.

We talked about Light-up night and the theme being White Christmas. The Academy Theater will be playing a free showing of White Christmas but you have to get tickets. Light-up night is December 6. She also is hoping to get fireworks and have a decorating contest.

The discussion moved on to Free Holiday Parking. This discussion lasted for a long time. Parking brings out a lot of emotions. Even though we all want to offer our customers free holiday parking, it is very difficult in the town where employees will take advantage of the free meters. In the end we all decided to try having free holiday parking with bags that clearly state Free Parking - Customers Only. We are hoping to have a temporary Customer Only Zone for the Holiday Season.

It was a great meeting. It showed the Downtown Meadville Business Alliance working well, with the City of Meadville and the Chamber of Commerce.