- I think we're ready to go then so we'll need a roll call start over here Michael
- over a BUBA member Mary Morgan BUBA Kate Rosenberger BUBA Heather Robinson BUBA
- Jane Coopersmith BUBA Cheryl Gilliland deputy controller City of Wilmington. Phil Anderson BUBA. Dela
- Rosa ESD. Audrey
- Brittingham City Attorney. Welcome everyone. And then real quickly, Audrey do you want to introduce
- yourself? Yeah I'm the City
- Attorney I recently took over as the attorney representing the ESD
- department so I believe I will be the one in these meetings instead of Alex
- moving forward Alex to go over a couple of other departments but I'm sure she
- and I will just be backing each other up so she might still see her here if I'm
- unavailable. Great thank you. Welcome. Thank you. All right I guess we need an
- approval of the minutes for March were there any comments questions corrections
- to the minutes last meeting all right hearing none do we have a motion for
- that? I'm going to approve the March 2025 board meeting minutes. Second. Second all those in favor
- I think we
- have to do roll call on this right yeah so I think okay so Felisa you want to
- start. Felisa Spinelli, aye. Phil Anderson, aye. Jane Kuprasnath, aye. Heather Robinson,
- aye. Kate Rosenberger, aye. Mary Morgan, aye. Michael Hober, aye. All right motion
- carries thank you. All right Dee you're up on director's report. Yeah so I did a
- pretty I guess more in-depth director's report than I usually do only because
- we've been well not only but because we've been discussing for several
- meetings about the loan forgiveness and where we kind of want to head with that
- program. I made an executive decision and renamed it a loan conversion program as
- the board wanted to convert these loans into grants and so that's kind of the
- move. And this is just a very high level look at what the items are within the
- document. We're still working with the office of the controller, the mayor's
- office and with legal to work on the language that's in the first draft.
- There are going to be several drafts of this. What will be the first thing that
- we present to you is not the thing that's going to go out, but it is the
- thing that will be probably the closest thing to what is going out. I feel like
- it's pretty straightforward. I don't know, I know that we're kind of pressed for
- time on all of the things so I don't know how much you guys want to get into it,
- but if anyone has any questions on these like very general points at this
- point in time, I'm happy to take them. Do you want to add anything? No, just that
- this you're doing a deep dive now and are planning to present a full proposal in
- May. That's where we that's where I would like to be. Yes, okay. No, I like to read
- over it and I kind of like how you stipulated what was required to apply
- for that. I think it is good. Yeah, we're still we're still working on some of
- those details because obviously we want well we want this conversion to help
- people but we also don't want it to feel punitive as well for those who have also
- been like working so hard to pay off these loans and that they are on time
- and all of that. So finding striking that balance is a difficult thing. I guess
- that always is a difficult thing when it comes to money. So working on that. As far
- as the grants, we had a really good turnout for grants right after the 812
- podcast. I immediately had like five applications which is great and so it's
- been good to get out there and talk to people and get some activation in that
- area of our budget. But we did find that there were some issues with the
- application process. One of the questions that was worded just I think that if you
- know how to fill out a grant application you can kind of infer what is being
- asked but if you aren't familiar with filling out grant applications you're
- going to do it as is. So the question was if you are applying for the business
- building improvement grant can you match up to 50% of your total funding request?
- That was a mistake on my part in just the wording of it and now that I have
- thinking about it I'm like why did you word it like that? So we're jading into
- if you're applying for the business building improvement grant can you match
- up to 50% of the total project cost? I think that that's going to eliminate a
- lot of confusion there. Also in the guidelines of the grants there are asks
- within the guidelines but not explicitly asked within the application. So we made
- that very explicit. There's a section for written consent from the landlord or
- property owner. I think that that'll just mitigate a lot of questions when we have
- grants come to the board. And then a simplified budget for funding requests
- reflecting the matching grants for the applicant. So it will be a small very
- easy spreadsheet. You saw that in the grant application that we're going to be
- looking at today where it's very explicit. These are the things we're using. This is
- how much the thing cost. This is how much we can put up. This is how much we're
- asking for. So there's there's no guessing on that point anymore. The board
- also asked to clarify some things about grants that we looked at last month,
- particularly the mill. I know that this has been it's been difficult to navigate
- because mill is a city-owned building. However, the mill is an independent 501C3.
- So the questions regarding the clarification on the funding received by
- the mill from the city. The mill receives $175,000 from the city to support its
- programming only. That does not include any operational costs. The terms of
- the mill's lease as a city building under the RDC's purview, the lease states that
- the mill must have written consent for any altering of the building. So they
- have to ask the RDC if they can put in new doors essentially by the lease. The
- RDC is only responsible for the doors replacement if it's necessary. So if it's
- some act of God or something to that effect, the mill or the RDC is
- responsible for that, but because the mill wants to do an upgrade, it is on them to
- pay for it. Will the RDC consider the upgrade? That is something that we would have to ask, they
- would have to ask the RDC. I think it should be asked. I mean does everyone agree? The RDC has
- invested a really
- extraordinary amount of money in that building and it was continuing to do so.
- They've got some repairs that they're working on right now and then one
- important expense D is that the mill funds through the CTP fund two hundred
- and fifty thousand dollars a year in the mill partnership agreement which is the
- mill the mills agreement with the RDC for the mill to manage the development
- of the trades district including management of the forge property and so I
- wasn't here last BBA meeting so I'm not specifically familiar with the door
- request so I'm sorry I should probably should have put that request back in
- there and so they would like to put more accessible doors on the main entrance at
- the top of the stairs top of the ramp and then in their event space so they
- want two separate doors to be repaired however in their funding request they
- were asking for one more for this one I and I brought it to the board because I
- think that it is would be really useful for them we as this the city in general
- as far as their 88 requirements many buildings have been fitting for ADA
- compliance like at a higher level but many have not because the minimum
- requirement is just for a wheelchair to fit in it's not including automatic doors
- it's not including a lot of different things so that's why this is more of a
- want and not a need because the building does fit ADA requirements so do you think
- the funding request will change in I mean your conversations in light of the
- structural required structural changes that are underway there I think they're
- gonna have to take down a whole wall we aren't sure if that is actually
- happening yet I think we're still I don't think that that wall repairs
- happening the wall repair is happening but are they taking the whole wall down
- because I haven't had an update from that yeah yes I mean it that's the
- that's what the repair we're taking it down okay I'm afraid I don't I'm a little
- concerned if this conversation we're on the public record and we're maybe in the
- weeds on some of the mill repair work that isn't finalized and hasn't been
- approved by the RDC yet some of it has been so I'm just I just want to observe
- that this is just discussion no absolutely my in my conversations there
- were still options available so I don't know if that changes this funding
- request although I am an advocate for making all of our buildings accessible to
- everyone I know that there are people that use wheelchairs that frequent the
- mill that are members of the mill and they have expressed to me and other
- staff members that that this would be an amazing upgrade especially when talking
- about work and work is something that you spend most of your life doing if
- that's where your office is why not make their lives a little bit easier so that
- that's just but that's just my two cents and then we will discuss the warehouse
- at a later date sorry so what status of the mill request is that on this agenda
- to be to be considered are they coming back with a updated proposal I will be
- working with Victoria for an updated proposal there are some things that I
- have asked her for I've asked for the the small budget that I was talking about
- a little bit earlier as the change and I do want to speak to them about
- approaching the RDC about making the alteration because since that is a part
- of their lease it is something that I think the board would require not not
- necessarily the RDC paying for the for it but having permission to actually
- make the alteration so it's the request before us or are we the request is not
- before us this is just an update to answer the questions that you guys have
- last time thanks Steve for that and it sounds like that's a continuing work in
- progress toward a revised request that will be forthcoming okay and then all
- right anything else for your update we've tabled the warehouse for for now
- correct correct all right thank you so we have some financials to look over
- Cheryl thank you for getting us these lovely printout and I will actually I'll send you an
- updated version just for you so you'll have electronic copy but yeah I did it
- looked fine on my screen so we'll start with the profit and loss document and
- that is just for the month of December we got very delayed in getting this
- report to you minor little internal things that cost lots of delay so I
- apologize for that so for the month of December 2024
- seven thousand seven hundred eighty dollars and eighty eight cents was
- brought in as income during December I'm gonna just go over the December so the
- profit and loss first sorry just make sure we're all everybody's rowing in the
- same the profit loss for the budget versus actual will do that one last because that is for the
- entire year okay okay sorry for that thanks yeah so out of that seven thousand seven
- hundred eighty dollars seven thousand six hundred and fifty nine dollars and
- seventy eight cents was bank interest and two dollars and eighty four cents was
- RRF loan late fees and a hundred eighteen dollars and twenty five cents was RRF
- loan interest and then on the expense side I still do not have this document I
- am so sorry Cheryl I can someone it's on page yeah 15 I'm so sorry I think it's
- on me I just okay 15 everybody who's going along the page before the okay it's
- just a little okay thank you everybody thank you so all right no problem okay
- good to go okay so I just talked about the interest at the very top and then on
- the expense side during the month of December sixty eight thousand four
- hundred fifty dollars was expended and that amounted to some arts and culture
- grants category of thirty two thousand one hundred fifty dollars you had a
- ten thousand dollars spent out of your education and entrepreneurship category
- and you had twenty seven thousand three hundred dollars spent out of your zone
- arts green category other income you had four hundred thirty three dollars and
- seventy seven cents brought in earned on interest from CDs so if you were just
- looking at your net income which is income minus your expense for the month
- of December you had a negative sixty one thousand two hundred thirty five dollars
- and thirty five cents because you get out more than you brought in and now if
- you just go to your your balance sheet which is that maybe the next page it was
- the first one it is a balance sheet page six for the PDF for everybody there we
- go this one no no page six that's the long one that there we go thank you so
- this is just really a snapshot of so your your total checking and savings
- balance as of December 31st 2024 was two million eight hundred eighty one thousand
- four hundred thirty eight dollars and eighty nine cents and you will see how
- much is in each each of your individual for individual banks and your long-term
- notes receivable total is hundred forty three thousand thirty four dollars and
- ninety cents so combined you are on December 31st your total assets came to
- three million twenty four thousand three hundred eighty three dollars and seventy
- nine cents and that's just a snapshot of the month of December so if you would
- like to then go to your profit and loss budget versus actual this is for the
- full year and I handed this out on the screen on the computer computer screen
- there each column is a page so so I distributed the the full view of that
- particular document and in 2024 199 thousand two hundred forty four dollars
- and forty seven cents was brought in as regular income which is reflects only
- thirty seven percent of your budget and that was budgeted very high because of a
- misunderstanding of how the income should be actually no actually this year
- it's because Catalan had backed up that's easy so this is actually what it
- should be okay all right and we're told that they're paying I have talked I had
- an email exchange just a few days ago with their accountants and they have
- expressed what needs to happen to Catalan's they have all of their
- invoices we have cleared everything with the county so it just needs to actually
- have that paid okay so in 2025 you will see an excess yes and this is for to
- Catalan which again is novo going forward but yes since this is 2024 in
- previous years it's still Catalan yes for the year of 2024 your CD interest
- amounted to six thousand two hundred seventeen dollars and ninety three cents
- so that is not budgeted because it's just extra income so it's listed at the very
- bottom of your profit and loss budget versus actual document if you want to
- look at the expense side overall forty eight point seven percent of your budget
- was expended during 2024 which came to 250 thousand six hundred fifty three
- dollars and ninety three cents the details of that amount will break it out
- by administrative seventy nine point eight percent of the budget was
- expended and that budget amount was forty seven thousand five hundred so you
- spent seventy nine seventy nine percent of that we do have a bonds category and
- of 350 thousand or three thousand five hundred dollars and none of that was
- expended in your grants category forty six percent of the four hundred thirty
- four thousand five hundred dollar budget was expended and that amounts to a
- hundred ninety nine thousand eight hundred thirty seven thousand ninety and
- ninety-four cents so under grants education and entrepreneurship why did
- we not disperse the forty five thousand dollars to Ivy Tech I feel like they
- come in each year it is it's actually listed down on oh no I guess it's yeah
- that's budget but it's not it's not under the actual it got listed I'm
- pretty sure did that not get paid out no it did get it definitely got paid out
- because I just got their report should be listed under that first column right
- which will take this up to six five forty four and under that category we
- didn't spend any other grants so not the training or enhancement no okay most of
- them most of the scholarships that we put out last year were well the
- scholarship that we did put out last year were president economic independent
- scholarships and then the grants education other is that MCC SC the 50
- thousand thousand yes okay so that seems so that yeah for 2025 I actually broke
- that I set it up a little different than we did for that I had set up for this
- year so it feels like that $45,000 needs to be shifted under the column yes okay
- so that changes things for us so that gives us a 90k negative net income with
- that addition so it doubles what what our net income is showing here did we
- capture everything else are we are we sure we I'm looking at it right now
- I feel like we had some business accessibility last year approvals to
- I wonder what was the year before yeah I don't know if it was accessibility yeah
- maybe we didn't have winning last year maybe I'm thinking about wonder lab and
- yeah that was the only accessibility grant that we've given less part right
- because yeah okay all right so we didn't have anything in there I'm not finding
- that we paid IV tech just so D we've got some work to do to uncover that yeah we
- can look into it because I mean this is I mean this is taken directly from from
- the the payments the payment sheet and deposits yeah that's kind of what I was
- wondering I feel like the system is pulling from some software platform then
- there's something yeah maybe that it's kind of reflected in the bank so get
- made so so this is accurate so that means we owe Ivy Tech 45,000 which is
- interesting because and then we'll have just reviewed their report from their
- funding from last year okay so okay all right well we'll figure out what's going
- on okay yeah all right so we can say though that what we're seeing is
- accurate based on last year's okay so that'll just be a follow-up for Ivy Tech
- so I just want to go back and double-check as well okay yeah I feel
- like this is a QuickBooks report it's got to be and it's got a tie and it's balanced with the
- financial statements each month okay so I
- agree I feel like then it's unlikely that the QuickBooks has an error there like
- that and I was just like I'm thinking well maybe I put it under a wrong
- category right that would be my human error okay if I put it in a wrong
- category but I don't see a $45,000 okay thank you thanks for that things for
- checking okay sorry Cheryl I totally interrupted oh no so just as a under the
- grants categories you have we have basically five categories so the arts
- and culture grants sixty one point three percent was extended your education
- entrepreneurship category twenty six point three percent was expended of the
- eighty two thousand dollar budget education that's eighty three point five
- percent expended of the sixty seven thousand five hundred dollar budget the
- twenty thousand dollar budget under miscellaneous grants we did not extend
- and zone improvements he ended up spending thirty thirty one point three
- percent of the hundred thirty five thousand dollar budget so just kind of
- a good overview that of those great categories so
- so overall again that's forty eight point seven percent of your budget was
- extended yeah and I just wanted to clarify I'm going under the assumption
- that there's discussion that you wanted to have the reports on a quarterly basis
- is that what you wanted to go to are you wanting to still do monthly I thought
- that you had some discussion and I was thinking you wanted to yeah I'm fine
- with continuing doing the revenue the revenue forecast and updating that
- spreadsheet monthly so either way I just wanted to because I know that your your
- time is very limited and being able to just do this once instead of every month
- is quarterly quarterly then every month is probably in May would we have q1
- reports yeah yeah I just got the deposit slips for March this morning so there's
- only three deposits I mean it's really fast to be to finish up for one it's
- ready I know we've been there's been a increasing grant application lately so
- even if we don't do a full budget it might be good to know where we're at on
- our overall grant budgets monthly just to keep track of things because we can
- lose a lot of information in a month yeah agreed and DNR talked about that
- because just the process of getting agreement sign money's distributed you
- know it kind of has a it lags behind the reports anyway and then we're even on
- quarterly we're still maybe a couple of months behind you know real-time so D is
- going to continue to keep some real-time information I think for us and bring
- that so that like last month when we had this chart of what's been committed to
- so we know for any particular budget item with grants the financial statements
- are not necessarily the real-time commitments that they're not going to
- reflect those details that exactly so D you've committed to keeping the board
- updated on that so we can make informed decisions about what those budget items
- look like and where we are on track with that so with that he's bringing up with
- us does everyone feel okay then about quarterly reports on the statements
- financial statements we good do we need a vote on that D or just I think that we
- probably should do a vote on it okay all right so do I have a motion motion
- second second all those in favor all right and then we have to do a roll
- call Heather Robinson I Jane Cooper Smith I believe this for now yeah thank you
- okay all right great thank you Cheryl oh you're very welcome appreciate it all
- right okay so D what's up next we have my agenda a grant review fun stuff the fun
- stuff that we get to do we have a grant review for friendly beasts and I think we
- have someone from friendly beast here with us today thank you for joining us
- did you want to talk about this a little bit and then if our guests wanted to say
- a couple of words or whatnot we welcome that yeah absolutely so I don't know if
- you're all familiar with friendly beasts but it's a cidery on the B line it's
- really an amazing addition to that area I know they've been around for about six
- or seven years cider but they do have food trucks come in so it's nice to have
- a business that's also helping other businesses in their promotion and
- cross-promoting and things like that this is for a general just facade
- improvement for the summertime there will be power washing repainting of the
- facade some furniture and things like that it's pretty straightforward in the
- budget that's put in that's in the packet so it's painting the facade power
- washing materials for a custom bench planners and tables for the patio labor
- for the custom bench plants soil eight metal stools wooden picnic tables
- three patio umbrellas three patio umbrellas under table bases and moving an
- unused air conditioner unit to beautify the space the total project is five
- thousand one hundred and fifteen dollars and fifty three cents friendly beast will
- contribute half of that which is two thousand two thousand five hundred fifty
- seven dollars and seventy six cents and they are requesting two thousand five
- hundred fifty seven dollars and seventy seven cents does anyone have any
- questions this is relatively straightforward
- I do have a couple but I don't have to go first other people have questions do
- we know how old the building is that they're in um I do not know how old the
- building is Toby do you know how old the building is? I do okay I just saw that was
- under building improvement grant I didn't know if it was applicable under a
- facade grant no I that building is not applicable for a facade grant I do know
- that my question was just about the use of funds so I'm clicking on the
- attachments but I only get taken to a city webpage for some reason so I can't
- see it but it's just the parameters of the grant so this is a building
- improvement grant but there's quite a bit of personal property that was
- mentioned in the list which is really important like those those are expensive
- assets for a business to purchase so I'm not questioning the need for those
- but it is a building improvement grant the right category for purchasing some
- of those materials yeah I was looking at the grant description and in ineligible
- project would be new signage which seems to me that would be in that same sort
- of category as furniture just things that are not necessarily a fixed I don't
- know I could see signage more than furniture furniture
- sorry
- so if that is the case I would recommend the board considering an ADA grant
- because when we look at some of the seating because of the because of the
- style of chairs and tables and benches replacing those things with ADA
- compliant furniture I think that that's something that if the board would be
- amenable to friendly beasts making that effort as far as the furniture goes for
- an ADA I think that that is a possibility if there if the board feels
- that the building improvement isn't fully applicable to the list of items so but
- your understanding I mean you move this forward so your understanding is that
- furniture is an applicable expense for that kind of personal property I we did
- have a discussion about this because furniture can be taken from the split
- from the place but also the point of the grants is to remove cost burden I think
- that that I think that because there is an alternative for the board to use the
- ADA grant for the furniture I think that not considering personal property in
- general from the building improvement grant is fine at like overall like as
- the overall policy of that grant because yes there are things that can be removed
- and taken away I think that when it comes to personal property like we're
- talking about a sign that's affixed to the building that can be building
- improvement because you will probably have to get a different sign for a
- different building when there are things that are actually affixed to the actual
- edifice of the building or in the building that is connected to the building
- building improvement when we're talking about moving things tables chairs you
- know clothing racks things like that those are those are personal property for
- sure because they can't get taken away this is still a little muddy for me so
- what I would feel comfortable with approving today is painting facade
- of power washing those are clearly business building improvements I don't
- see in the in the table I don't see the signage cost or I don't maybe that comes
- under painting but for the ADA question I think that I would consider approving
- for ADA equipment but it's not clear from this material what is like there's
- a bunch of furniture is all of it ADA is it formally ADA compliant or is it you
- know what I mean like there's just it doesn't feel this just feels like it's
- got three different categories of things so some stuff qualifies under building
- some stuff might qualify under ADA and some other stuff just doesn't really
- seem to qualify for me or just not for me I don't want to personalize it and so
- I think if you could untangle that then we could figure out what we can approve
- the ADA suggestion was just something that I thought of at this point in time
- that is not something that I've approached the applicant about but I
- think that I worth giving this giving this back to the applicant to
- reconfigure their application for ADA and making those considerations for what
- they want to build and what they want to put in after this but I would be
- comfortable with a motion to approve their painting and power washing so that
- they can move forward with that springtime is really important for
- businesses especially on the trail and I know that they are probably really ready
- to to move on that so I'll set that there and back up I was trying to find
- last month we approved the grant for the place on Rogers that included a display
- case gold dust I don't know why my packet won't open all the way it just
- says I can't see all the pages but what grant was that because we did do there
- was a sign and there was yeah we actually talked about yeah and a display
- case could be removed right and you know we kind of said that and I don't I don't
- know but we did approve that we did approve things so so so the counter so
- the counter is something that's affixed to the actual building that is in the
- goldest application that is something that they are not going to take with
- them the sign I actually clarified on the side they actually did not know
- about the ordinance but the sign that they want is within the bounds of the
- ordinance so it's very small it's a very small light box that I was like well you
- can't really stick it to the building on the outside because that is part of the
- ordinance yeah so their sign does fit within those parameters but yeah the the
- last the last grant yes there were some there were some personal property but
- the majority of it of the grant was to do building improvement so and okay so
- that was a building improvement grant and some of it could be moved basically
- okay some of this feels like beautification and you know and I I
- think that that's not necessarily an unworthy thing for for businesses but I
- just I just don't feel that we have a place for her where it fits you know and
- so our guidelines are such and I agree with with Jane that eleven hundred and
- fifty dollars for the power painting facade and power washing could be an
- option for today and maybe we could revisit some of these other pieces and
- whether or not you know does that put us on a slippery slope if we started
- proving things like like this because then that opens up a lot of avenues for
- grants and maybe that's okay I just feel like there's there needs to be some
- clarification or further further discussion on it thoughts I can just
- reading the business improvement grant in our our laws here I can see it
- applying it is an external visual improvement from what is existing I could
- see it applying if you know without too much you know skewing of what that is
- I'm fine with it as little as it is but it's up to everybody but if I may please
- on a business standpoint when you're trying to do a project if you can keep
- steadily moving even with a smaller thing it makes a big deal instead of you
- waiting in the standstill and not taking the chance to advance in the next step
- they may miss out on something that they need to do now but we can't approve
- something to make them move forward we should Michael can you share that
- description with us oh sure building improvement grant this grant aims to
- improve the physical condition of a business's buildings in the enterprise
- zone and promotes economic vitality and beautification of the community this
- grant seeks to assist small business owners in updating and improving internal
- and external visual improvements preservation and structural integrity I
- I do want to prove this grant so that's my lens I would say that I think it is
- small and I think like if I mean I know do you're saying the display case is was
- was it not a display case and it was a register it was a counter yeah they're
- like you they were using a display case probably would stay there I mean I feel
- like the build out of the space in front of friendly beasts is very specific to
- that space where I guess you could take it with you if you left but maybe not
- because it's like the park is that it's going to be built out for that parking
- lot and I will say a couple things I think it doesn't look very great the way
- it is now like it looks really temporary or kind of just like thrown together a
- little right and I think building it out to where it looks like an extension of
- the building makes it much more inviting for people to come in and sit kind of
- like it's almost like a park lit to me like it's or or the Kirkwood conversion
- that kind of like Uptown did where they actually put an entire wooded deck out
- it reminds me more of like a wooded deck so I do see it as an external visual
- improvement I guess too I don't see it as a huge difference in some of the
- things we approve for gold dust I guess it's hard to distinguish those for me
- and you all feel square with that and the furniture and the yeah so bringing up
- Uptown when you think about their deck that is actually personal property
- because they can remove it okay and put it back that's what they do annually so
- I mean if you want to get down to the nuts and bolts of that it's actually
- personal property so if they asked for a grant for something like that where does
- that where does that fall because it is improvement right and it is
- beautification but it's also something that they can take away mm-hmm so I'd
- support Jane's recommendation and you know comments that Felicia made that to
- approve the all of the elements that are not furniture related and then figure
- out if we can come up with another way it's behaving more like a fixed asset
- and it is an area that needs improvement but I do feel a little weird about some
- of the yeah I don't know but I mean it's a board in the board this is not like
- Indiana tax compliance that we're talking about I think the board has the ability
- to and did in its program define what it wants to support and then support that
- but I was just throwing a flag because I think we should try color within the
- lines yeah I see where I'm okay supporting whatever the majority wants
- to do I would say like I do I know we are nimble and flexible which is a
- wonderful thing about the VA and I would say yes I see friendly beast like very
- different than uptown friendly beast is very small and is open a few days a week
- and it's in an area of town that doesn't have anything like this so I think it's
- very neighborhood hub ask and it's making like a third space for the
- neighborhoods around it and that because of the nature of it being so small it
- does need potentially like more access to grant funds because a bench is
- expensive and it takes a lot of cider pints to make up for that but I also
- understand if it's not in the parameters of the grant it is not so I guess I
- would also say like is there a way that it can be something right if and maybe
- it's not all today so maybe they come back but I would I would love to just
- help businesses in the zone grow and especially that area is very proud it's
- very exposed yeah and so any improvement will be huge because of how much you can
- see it yeah I guess if you take just the the permanent more permanent related
- items the total that friendly beasts is spending on that is twenty six forty two
- sixteen and that is over half so if you consider the rest of the project
- materials as their match I don't know I think I could I guess I think I could get
- on board with that it isn't a ton of money yeah yeah so I don't believe it
- would our guests want to say anything about the property
- recently joining this business and part of that was because there was a lot of
- certainty with the lease and Convention Center and become part of the convention
- center but we do have a lease for another year and a half hopefully that
- will be extended for that right now but I think that's why the space has been
- sort of delighted that we can make it look really nice and be a really welcoming place and I think
- when we
- had talked initially we kind of focused on the beautification part that you were
- also mentioning that's what we intend to do and yeah because it's a winery
- cidery winery it can be all ages that's yeah it's a space that can be very welcoming and we need
- some attention and there's a lot we can do to do that.
- Thank you.
- Where do we land? So where are we? I would make a motion to a different funding. Yeah there's a few
- things that we've talked about so
- we've talked about that we're feeling good about the painting facade power
- washing and maybe the built-in custom benches and planters because those are
- things that seem to be like more permanent and as Jane noted that total
- comes up to 26-42-16 so the board can choose to fund half of that if we were
- sticking to sort of the things we fund as far as a 50% match on on those which
- would put us at 13-21-08 or we could follow the path of saying 25-57 is a
- little less than half of those particular items and we're willing to
- fund that portion knowing that the total project is over five thousand so it's
- that how's that for a word soup everyone so I'd make a motion to approve the
- entire funds the 25-57 okay we also we have a second on that all right so
- we'll need a roll call then on it so Emerson yes Jane Cooper Smith yes Heather
- Robinson yes Kate Rosenberger yes Harry Morgan yes Michael Hover yes the Lisa
- and Virginia was there now oh Virginia to Virginia hello I think you have to
- put your camera so do you want okay I'm sorry Virginia we didn't do your vote
- can you tell us again okay thank you all right motion passes good discussion
- around that I think that's helpful for some clarification would we be willing to
- revisit the new signage ineligibility in this grant I don't remember the
- rationale for that and it just seems to me that that would be specifically
- excluded sure so I'd be happy to amend that okay
- yes I think they should come back you know another thing about friendly be
- sorry that I didn't realize is that they are a cidery slash winery where there's
- basically no place in town like them and because of my age I have a lot of friends
- with the like elementary school children and there's like no place to go to take
- them to take kids where you can order a drink at a counter and friendly beasts
- like really might be the only one yeah because kids aren't allowed in bars
- unless there's food but so many places then you have to order from a server at
- a table and it's just it is a mess yeah so that's really neat thank you and good
- discussion everyone with a nicer weather on its way we'll all look forward to
- seeing the improvements to that space all right we are just about on time I
- don't D I didn't see anything else on the agenda for for today other than I know
- you put some budget projections in here we don't we don't really have time to
- get into that but I would just say the biggest Delta there is the Catalan back
- eased revenue which is 400 no well if they pay everything right it's it's a lot
- of money it's 400 it's if they paid for if they clear up the what they pay what
- they owe for this year and past years it's somewhere in the neighborhood of
- seven hundred thousand so that's a lot of money for us a lot of money and I may
- have mentioned it before the meeting started but we have cleared all the
- paperwork for the county I've spoken to their accountants I have sent them all
- of their invoices they are receiving their corrected tax bill for the real
- estate property on April 16th I believe that everything else has already been
- corrected so at this point I believe that they are going to pay everything
- that they owe because their accountants have gone through a lot of trouble to
- get this all figured out so I'm maybe maybe maybe I'm naive but I will keep
- pressing and I will keep checking in with their accountants and checking with
- them knowing that those funds are coming for sure and receiving those funds could
- give the board I think some more flexibility about maybe exceeding
- budgets in some areas where we've talked about we're already kind of hitting up
- against what we planned for so having that additional revenue secured and
- knowing that that is in in the bank that could maybe give us some comfort with
- it's you know exceeding the budget some this year where last year we didn't meet
- budgets we were like $92,000 under our zone improvement grant so we might
- consider that yeah all right thank you everyone it's one o'clock appreciate it
- ("Pomp and Circumstance")