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HomeMy WebLinkAboutHEDRA 03-10-11 Agenda NotesHEDRA AGENDA NOTES FOR MARCH10, 2011 MINUTES Please see attached HEDRA Meeting minutes from February 10, 2011 for your review and approval. BILLS FebruaryBills Bradley & Deike$68.00Lanoga Business Agreement Himle Horner$350.50Marketing Services -January Please see attached general ledger detail for further information. BUSINESS A.Minnesota Main Street Program The City has been selected to participateas a “Designated Member” in the Minnesota Main Street Program. The Selection Committee was impressed by the strong historic preservation efforts of the City. “Designated Member” statusinvolves significant participation among downtown stakeholders including formation of a Main Street Program Board (9-11 members). Under the Board, four Main Street Committees are required to provide leadership on Promotion, Economic Restructuring, Organization, and Design. Each of these Committees would involve additional volunteers. In all, the program would require a commitment of 15-20 people volunteering 5-15 hours per month. The City would pay a $1,000 membership fee and have access to free training and $7,800of technical assistance by outside consultants and specialists. Staff has met with the Chamber of Commerce and Downtown Business Association leaders to determine interest and willingness to serve on the various boards. There appeared to be interest in the program, but uncertainty in filling the necessary positions. st It does not appear that the City would be able to meet the May 1deadline for program start-up. Additional time and work is necessary to determine the interest and value of the program. Staff proposes to decline the invitation to join the Main Street Program as a “Designated Member”, but instead to join as an “Associate Member”. The Associate member annual fee is $300 and would provide the City and downtown with Main Street resources and discounted training opportunities. During 2011 staff would continue to gaugethe interest and commitment level. A Main Street Board\Steering Committee could be formed, and an application resubmitted for consideration next year. ACTION: Decline the offer to become a “DesignatedMain Street” Member at this time. Join Minnesota Main Street as an “Associate Member” and continue to gage interest and commitment for future “Designated Main Street” status. Please see attached Minnesota Main Street Letter for further information. REPORTS A.Hudson Re-Use Study - Stark Preservation Planning will be conducting interviews with th area stakeholders April 5-7. An open house will occur on ***. Future Maintenance –City Staff will be conducting a walk-through of the Hudson th facility on March 14to determine future maintenance responsibilities. Hudson Windows – Staff is awaiting MnDot’s direction on when to begin the window blocking project. A list of 3-4 local contractors has been drafted to bid on the project. HEDRA Walk-Through – Staff will schedule a walk-though of the Hudson facility for either the April or May regular meeting. B.TH 61 Bridge Work continues on all the piers next to or within the River: The last of the drilled shafts at Pier 5 (directly on southern bank of River) o was filled with concrete yesterday.Next week will see further excavating activity at this pier to carve out an area for the footing/foundation, with concrete placement possibly taking place by the end of the week. Preparations continue to be made at Pier 6 (middle of River) to get the o cofferdam frame and walls completed prior to any significant rise in the River elevation. Again, actual pier construction work at this location will begin after spring flooding. Crews are working to complete as much as they can at Pier 7 (north of the o middle of the River) before the River level rises. Pile driving at Pier 8 should be completed today, with some concrete o being placed next week. Concrete placement for the footing of Pier 9 is wrapping up. Crews will o work on removing concrete forms and some grading activity around this pier next week. The “stem” of Pier 10 (northernmost pier) is starting to take shape, as the o first portion of the concrete being poured this week. The stem will continue to rise during the next week/week and a half. st March 31is the date that has been set for the next Bridge Project Open House at City Hall. It appears that the Contractors PR Team is leaning towards putting out a mass mailing of postcards to announce the time/date/location for this event. Community Relations Coordinator Shannon Rausch sent out additional information on other communications and outreach activity earlier today. st MnDOT and the Contractor have decided to provide an update at the March 21 th City Council meeting instead of on March 7. Bridge project staff and City staff will be discussing traffic impacts with the group of businesses directly on Highway 61 south of the Bridge at a meeting to be held on March 22. Some level of underground utility work is anticipated to begin in March. This nd will likely be storm sewer work in the area north of 2Street near the River.The Contractor is preparing a notification to all of the businesses that will be affected by utility construction to be sent out at least 30 days in advance of when they are scheduled to be affecting utility services to those businesses. A webcam has now been activated on the MnDOT web site for the Bridge project, showing static views as seen from near the Hudson Sprayer building - http://www.dot.state.mn.us/hastingsbridge/ C.Marketing Marketing Plan: Himle Horner conducted a very good meeting with our focus group on Wednesday, February 23. The intent was to clarify plan goals and objectives, prioritize target audience, and identify the community’s strengths/weaknesses. Four of our six businesses were able to make it; Norine Bishop from Emily’s Bakery, Leslie Neilson from Meloy Park Floral, Mark Vetvick from Country Inn and Suites, and Christine Schaffer from Hastings, Gift Garden and Floral. Two who were not able to be there were Barb Hollenbeck, and Kevin Hoeschen. We received positive feedback from group members about how well the meeting went and how excited they were to be moving forward with this project. Next step: Himle Horner will go back and take the information discussed at this meeting and do some comparative studies with other communities (e.g. Stillwater, Red Wing, and any others which are similar to Hastings) and see what types of marketing they have either done in the past or are currently doing. They are also going to start contacting businesses to visit with them one-on-one to ask more in- depth questions similar to those which we covered with the focus group. DEED Grant: The City was awarded a grant from DEED for $10,000 at the end of 2009 to help business during the construction of the new bridge. Our initial intent was to use these dollars to put road signs up around the perimeter of town indicating that the TH61 Bridge is “Open for Business,” as well as a radio campaign promoting the same message. The City collaborated with the Chamber of Commerce to secure this grant. We have been waiting the last 18 months to do anything because MNDOT had suggested they might be able to put the signs up for us and save the City the money we had allocated for the signs. We recently have learned that MNDOT will indeed be placing “Bridge Open” signs along with their other road construction signs. Since receiving this information we have been looking for other ways to promote Hastings and help businesses during the construction as this money needs to be spent by June 30, 2011. We have been in contact with the Chamber since we collaborated with them initially on this grant and learned that they had plans to produce a coupon book full of deals at local businesses. The coupon book is open to all businesses regardless of whether or not they are Chamber members or not and is set to take place this spring/summer and run into the fall. After a series of meetings with the Chamber, the City now plans to work with the Chamber of Commerce on this “shop local” campaign. We plan to use the Grant dollars to help widen the promotion of their campaign though advertising. We will also help pay for printing additional copies of the coupon book that will be distributed by businesses around town and from City buildings. There aremany details we are still finalizing and more information will be forthcoming as it becomes available. D.Commissioner Vacancy th The deadline for submittal of applications is March 7. The three individuals that previously submitted commissioner applications have also been contacted. Commissioners Elling Schultz, Holzem, and Peine have volunteered to be part of the interview panel.Candidate interviews will take place in March. Appointment of the Commissioner by the City Council has been tentatively scheduled for the th April 4meeting. We hope to have the new Commissioner seated for the April HEDRA Meeting. Staff will provide an updated list of candidates at the meeting. E.Downtown Hard Wired Alarm RFP City Staff has completed the draft RFP for hard wired fire alarm systems in mixed use occupancy buildings downtown. The RFP seeks to find a single installer for all systems. With the cost savings involved with a single contract it is hoped that all systems could be installed with existing CDBG\HEDRA funds, with no installations costs to the property owner. Staff has learned that planned CDBG funds for fiscal year 2011 could be subject to significant costs. The RFP will not be released until further direction on the future of funding is clear. F.Community Development Annual Report Please find the Community Development Annual Report attached highlighting HEDRA activities for 2010. G.HEDRA Roles and Goals In August, 2009 HEDRA held a special meeting to discuss our work plan and to prioritize future projects. The attached Roles and Goals were established from that meeting. Staff seeks to revisit goals and work plans through either as special meeting, or dedication of time at a regular meeting. Any other topics for discussion are sought as well. ATTACHMENTS HEDRA Minutes – February 10, 2011 General Ledger Detail –February, 2011 Minnesota Main Street Letter Community Development Annual Report HEDRA Roles and Goals – 8-6-09