Are we on the back?

All right.

We'll go ahead and call the meeting to order Wednesday, February eighth.

Emily's got a new script that we're supposed to read prior to meetings.

Okay.

So here we go.

Thanks for joining us.

Before we start the meeting, I'd like to remind folks of a couple of things to make it easier for you to follow along and make public comment.

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First, followed by those joining via video conference.

New script to read for all the supposed to memorize it.

We should report it.

No, they should do that for a while.

That's smart.

I'll work on it.

I'll perfect it.

Whole one page.

I only that name.

Every every public meeting.

Yeah, we'll do this.

And I even have abbreviated that some of it on my own.

Here we go.

AI read it.

All right.

On to the regular agenda.

Go ahead.

Great.

Are there any disclosures from the board?

Any changes to the agenda?

No.

Public service announcements.

Approval of minutes.

We will have a big batch of minutes to approve at the next meeting.

I have now the minutes maker software.

So like a year, years worth of minutes to approve.

Consent agenda, we have none.

Public comments.

This is a time to comment on any non-agenda matter falling within the scope of the BID.

Are there any public comments online?

Please raise your hand.

No, okay.

We will be looking at the first draft of our fiscal 2027 budget today.

If we are ready to approve it at the next board meeting, but if not, we will have time to look at it a couple more times and approve it no later than the APO board meeting.

As a reminder from the renewal in 2020, we had a statement in there that the assessment rate will not exceed three set three cents per taxable dollar value.

So just keep that in mind.

I have the suggested assessment amount for fiscal year 27, and then laid out a few examples like I have in the years past, um, just to kind of see what that looks like if we were to go a little higher, a little less.

Um and then again, this is just first draft budget, so uh these are my suggestions, but obviously this is um your work plan and budget, so open to suggestions.

And actually, I wanted to um back up.

I wanted to welcome um Commissioner Magic.

She is our new liaison.

Sorry, Jen.

Um Eric and I had a brief meeting with Commissioner Magic yesterday just to kind of do a brief onboarding of the BID.

She had served previously as the commission liaison for the URD board, so she's very familiar working on um eHope projects and the EHO Peace Park project with Ellie.

Um, very familiar with the downtown.

So welcome, Jennifer.

Yeah, welcome.

Welcome.

Back to the budget.

Um I have our fiscal year 26 budget, um, a rough estimate for our year-end projections for this year, and then the proposed draft budget for fiscal year 27.

For the assessment rate, I'm proposing um 295,000.

It's a 5% increase over fiscal year 26 of 280.

I'm not gonna go line by line.

I'll just kind of highlight some of the changes here.

Um small increases to income for sponsorships, um, nothing too drastic.

8% increase for the management fee for the downtown partnership.

Um, this is largely going towards um bookkeeping and payroll costs for the downtown boson partnership.

Our bookkeeper of 20 plus years has retired, so we have a new bookkeeper, so um just adjusting costs to that, and then of course, just um general cost of living wage adjustments and rent increases.

Um, but this is the kind of the catch-all fund for um just all those professional fees.

I will note that uh we have are looking at an 8% increase across the board, so B I D, URD, and DBA.

And that's been a little unequal for many, many years, and I would say over the past five to six years, we try to be you know grow it at the same rate for consistency and health insurance increases.

Yeah, minor.

Um payroll expenses.

I have a slight increase.

Um, the year end projection is showing a bit lower than what we had.

We hadn't been completely fully staffed.

Um, there was a little bit of a period there where we were um kind of running on a skeleton crew or maybe not working as many hours as our staff could have.

So I have a slight increase there.

Um, again, just towards end of season contract bonuses and hopefully implying to be fully staffed for the next fiscal year.

Um change to the downtown safety program, but I do want to highlight that I don't have any proposed spending this fiscal year towards that um.

Ellie and I have possibly a meeting with um a new engagement coordinator at that's specific for the public safety center.

They reached out, we have not had a meeting yet, but it's a new position there.

So we're hoping to set up a meeting, see if there's any projects that we could actually do in the near term that we're able to partner on.

We've of course talked about here funding towards a resource officer.

That is still not something that is in the near term whatsoever.

Um so I still have this as a line item, but I don't have any proposed spending before the end of this fiscal year.

I I think it's still something we're interested in pursuing as board uh whether that money goes towards a future salary or or whatnot, but I think it is good to earmark that for that.

Well, and I I think the police department, at least the the what I'm hearing is that they are ready to start at least having these conversations more.

Um they have staffed up, and I think you've seen that they've increased funding, um, are doing more um traffic stops and and and general work um like that.

And so that may be part of you know their their programming moving forward.

So I think there seems to be a little bit more of an opening for this discussion than there has been in the past.

Um moving down the holiday lights reserve fund, we are done renovating all the spiders.

Um we will now move towards actually replacing garland and bows.

There's a slight increase for the holiday spider repair um just with the windstorms we had this last year.

There's gonna be a little bit more repairs um needed than typical for just the annual year over year maintenance.

Um we have a slight increase for the new banners.

The downtown position partnership will be looking to kind of um revamp and rebrand our colors and logo.

I guess not our logo, but more so our coloring and branding over the next year.

So we will be looking to replace just our existing eat play shop dime banners.

So I have a bit more in there included than years past.

Marketing slight increase.

Graffiti, we haven't seen as much this year as we have last year, leaving it in there.

Um I know warm weather is on the horizon.

So again, leaving that, but um just taking it down a little a bit from the 7,000 over fiscal year 26.

Um you'll see for the vehicle insurance this year.

We ended up paying out 16,000.

Um we had an accident that we had to pay out, but our annual premium is will be within that 7600 this year.

Um, a new line item that I've included this year is hazmat cleanup.

We once in a while have to call out day screen restoration to clean up um human fecal matter that um our maintenance semen's not going to touch.

So that's a new line item before I usually had just pulled it out of maintenance supplies, but I went ahead and added a separate line item so we can have it there.

And then program contingency again, kind of just to catch all things that we can use for um maybe professional services or we also um take out the um QuickBooks fee for when people pay invoices online.

We cover that cost for um the people that are paying the invoices.

How long are we thinking we need the holiday reserve fund for?

I think this would be the last year to get all the garland replaced, unless this that would be to replace existing garland, and then if we want to extend the program to side streets like we did the flower baskets, we would probably need another year.

Um if that is something, even if we wanted to extend it, um, I'd probably want to work in some sort of contract to install the garland.

It's becoming a lot for Mike to install it.

Um, and we just kind of have the skeleton crew in the winter, so it's usually which we're happy to do.

Ellie and I and Cash and Brenner out there helping Mike.

Um, so if it's something we wanted to expand that program past its current capacity, or maybe even look at that now.

I'd want to add something in for um a contract and service to do the installation.

Okay.

And then Emily, how do we do you know how we did on the spiders?

Did you get any estimates on repairing the ones?

Because they're a few of them are really wrapped and twisted after that windstorm.

Um, yes, Tim has already provided a quote from um Travis Barton who does the welding repairs as well as we've already placed the order from Julio displays, so that is within those um those numbers there.

Right.

Yes, they got um spiders at a rough year.

Yes, I did.

I have a quick question about the flower baskets.

Yes.

We had a little bit of a rough year also surviving.

Was there any suggested um solution for that?

Or um from Oak Gardens, they just thought across the board.

It seemed like a lot of flowers in the valley, just it wasn't a great year for it.

Um we're gonna try a different type of fertilizer.

We had reuse some fertilizer that we had from more than a year ago, so making sure that we have fresh fertilizer and more fertilizer in each batch when we fill out the water tank.

Um as far as how they were planting the baskets, they didn't have any other uh methods or suggestions.

Um not anything as far as how it is planted or any doing anything different with the actual baskets.

Was the water actually a problem?

Were they not getting enough water?

They're not self-watering baskets.

They were getting enough water, yes.

Um they were Patty was on it last year, and they each basket got filled at least twice a week.

And I don't think they were ever completely fully empty on days when she was watering.

You know, I I will just mention that we think that there was that the issue last year was not just environment.

It was it was happening around the valley um specifically, but that there was issues with soil compaction.

At the end of the summer, a bunch of the flowers that were totally dead, I mean they were completely dead, had standing water actually in the bottom of the earth planter.

And so the more the after the fact when oak gardens came and took them down, they'd wait a pretty extensive time period to let the bottom part, you know, they they have to have them be light because they're so heavy if there's water in the bottom of them.

And then so they came back to us and basically said that they're a lot of them had really compacted soil.

So I do think at least recognizing new fertilizer, um, recognizing the compaction of the soil last year.

I think they'll make some changes.

I don't know, you know, specifically how that works, but that seemed to be the issue at the end of last year, and they are at least aware of it.

Now, Oak Gardens does have what one or two years under their belt, new ownership.

And so I think that you know, just recognizing how important this contract is to them.

I think they will, you know, look to make changes.

I don't know how impactful that will be, but that seemed to be the issue at the end of last year.

So not super helpful.

But I will just mention one other thing in this budget.

I try to kind of stay hands off this um for the most part.

Um through this branding process, um, we're gonna be changing some of the colors and some of the um, you know, identity of of downtown through our our branding materials.

I think one of the only things that's truly visible that the BID oversees from a marketing and branding perspective is the street land banners.

Um I think we've tried to kinda, you know, tread lightly on replacing those um over the years.

I would love at least um considering upping that that budget to do kind of a whole new budget rebrand, potentially even redesigning the banners, um, you know, and and reprinting them under new branding colors.

I think we have frankly put restrictions.

The URD really cannot support branding and marketing in the way that the BID and DBA can you know through their budgets and and fiscally.

Um, and so we have to lean in to the BID and the DBA to be our our marketing partners and and branding partners.

Um, I think that the branding of the banners can be very visually visually impactful.

Um, and I think a big part of this new branding set.

Just putting it out there.

I don't know the total of doing a full reprint, but it would be cool.

That cost that 5,000 is would be pretty close to having more than enough banners.

The banner program has gotten so popular that our banners honestly aren't, I mean, they are up, but there's never you know, they're never all up and down Main Street, so I think that 5,000 is enough to replace all of them.

Um we might want to allocate some more for um a redesign.

Um this scenario we have scenario number two in our draft budget, so we're looking at 0.022 658.

Um, and then I have a little less than a little more of what um that projected assessment rate would be.

Um going back.

And then of course, any new or other projects or initiatives that you guys want to bring forward to the table, we can chat about.

So I don't know if we want to go um just kind of down the line one by one thoughts, or if anyone wants to just jump in, but I'd love to hear any thoughts and feedback for the budget.

What a percentage increase, what is that if we wanted the scenario too?

It was eight, right?

I don't see any, I don't have any changes to the budget.

I mean, my concern was the spiders and so how they whether through the winter, it sounds like you got that covered.

So seems fine to me.

I mean 295 for that next year seems appropriate.

I agree.

Looks good to me.

It looks good to me too.

But I will say, because I have to.

So I what I like about this is that you know it's pretty clear this is kind of an as-is kind of business as usual sort of scenario, which I think is good.

I I think I might encourage us to think about um, you know, because we kind of look, I was looking through the budget.

A lot of this stuff, quite frankly, like I feel like I would trust you to tell me whether 1500 is the right number or 5,000.

But in the bigger buckets of what this board might be deciding, is like here's a number that we're spending on maintenance of just the downtown area.

And that's something that if we knew kind of in total of the total budget, you know, of the 300,000 or so, we spend as much on just the maintenance of what we have.

And then the flowers cost us, decorations cost this, banners cost this.

So if we looked at it in those bigger categories, we might be able to come up with you know, maybe there's uh a third or fourth category that's like what are our goals?

Do we have another goal that we want to try and do with any of this?

Anything that other communities of similar size or even larger size that are have a downtown association that are doing things that we should be aware of.

We're not close, I don't think I'm close enough to that to know.

But if there were things that were out there that you see that are like, hey, this is a cool project that might it'd be great to have a couple of suggestions because it I think it's pretty easy to say, yeah, five percent makes total sense, like just kind of a uh increase to cover costs and things.

But if there's something that is meaningful for us to do that we could bring back around and say, gosh, we're spending a tremendous amount on maintenance.

Is there something we should do to like we did with the flowers at that one point in time?

If there's anything on those fronts that we should look at.

I think that would be an easier way to digest some of this than in money line, yeah.

Uh yeah, I think this all looks good too.

I would just take a moment to remind everybody too, we've got the TIFF sunsetting in seven years now.

Um and so from our budget standpoint, that's gonna we're gonna have big decisions in three or four years about how the BAD wants to step up and fund what we have or don't want to have going forward.

So I think it's okay to be somewhat conservative in this time, knowing that if we can start to build some space in our in our existing three cent assessment rate to move up to that to cover some of the things that are that the URD board is is currently covering, I think is wise.

So what would some of those things be?

Uh I mean it's mostly staff uh people in the places doing the things potentially overseeing a um revolving loan fund for infrastructure improvements, of course, staffing, keeping the partnership you know together as a group.

Um I will tell you a couple just a couple things to know.

One, I think I will have a clearer picture by the end of this upcoming fiscal year of what type of role the BID plays after the sunset, um, or you know, while we make our way through the sunset.

So um, and this was actually a suggestion a suggestion by um Commissioner Fisher um to really get some scenarios on what this looks like.

We have some ideas, we have some thoughts.

Um I think the the city um and city plants community development is more willing than ever to work with us to figure out um you know what this means.

Um, specifically because it would be them taking on a whole lot.

This would be impacting the capital improvement project budget in an immense fashion.

Um so it is our best interest to truly work together.

Um so with that I will keep you all updated on what that looks like.

We will be seeking um consultants to to do some of this work for us because there are other communities that can provide some examples on what this looks like.

Um sunsetting URDs is a normal thing.

Um I think we've approached URDs very differently and and sold bonds and tried to extend life of URDs, but inevitably they do sunset.

So other communities have dealt with this and and and we're gonna do it.

Um the other thing that I will put out there, um, and and this is really to just kind of go off of what you were saying, Eric.

I you are a big thinker, and it's really uh you bringing things like the Earth Planters idea to this board is is really I I hang my hat on a lot of the things that you guys do for being the the nuts and bolts of downtown, you know, through graffiti removal, cleanup, maintenance.

I mean, these are the general things that just simply need to get done because they're incredibly innovative that about how you look at it.

I will just throw this out.

BID and Bozeman has adopted the BID as being our clean and safe program.

It's great, it's wonderful.

That is what we do with our BID funds.

You are not restricted to clean and safe programming for the BID, right?

So whether it is moving towards more of a um operational and administrative support for the partnership or the revolving loan fund or things like that.

You do not have to be within that box, right?

Um, and so if you look at even a Livingston, Livingston's BID essentially pays for their branding, marketing, and business um promotional side of things.

So I just venture you to think past that.

Of course you don't.

You are incredibly successful at what you all do.

I believe the most successful in the state.

Although you're not restricted to that.

So you know, if there are big ideas, bring them to the table.

Um that's all.

Am I uh not seeing don't we have a CD or a savings account noted somewhere?

I might have overlooked it, but we have some reserves.

Yes, I don't know.

Two.

I don't have it on there unless it I think it clipped off.

I don't have it on this version.

I don't have a finance report on there, but I have a printout of the finance report from yeah, sorry for not including that.

We have um actually two CDs now.

We have one at American Bank, and then Ellie and I opened another one at first security bank probably about five months ago, six months ago.

Um so on CDs we have a hundred just under 135,000, and then in our checking account balance, 155,000 roughly.

So just under 290.

So we yeah, also funding there.

If anyone has any ideas, if you want to spitball ideas of any different programs or initiatives that you'd like to see a few years back, we had looked at snow removal, um, pressure washing, sidewalks.

Um both of those were, you know, we could maybe do them once a year or kind of test them out.

It wouldn't be something that's sustainable to do star removal throughout the entire district.

Um we looked at yeah, different marketing initiatives.

Um I know the DBA might have some things in the works for different campaigns, but I don't think anything's quite ready to be launched yet.

So I did you know discuss this before, but I think this is URDs responsibility.

But the uh all of our street lamps, the bases are they've gotten really hammered over the years, and so they I don't think anything's been done with that lately, but it'd be nice to figure out a program where we can repair those, paint those, or whatever needs to be done.

We had um we ordered about maybe eight of them to replace, and then Mike, end of last summer.

Um, I think I'll check on the status of that.

But we had um he placed new ones on, um, and then we took the old ones to be re powder coded at Midwest welding.

So it's gonna be kind of just like a swap swap them out a little bit out of time.

Um so it had been started, but I will check in on the progress of that.

Thanks, Randy.

And just to let you know, we um periodically place tree great tree guard, you know this all too well.

Um tree great tree guards, light poles.

We place those orders you know pretty regularly so that when we get an application for new light poles or tree grades or tree guards, that's some a lot of times we can supply them to the project or replace them if damaged.

That was when we went and repla um purchased eight of the bases this last year.

Um then things got really busy toward the end of the year.

So I think we will go in and jump right into that this next year, and we do need to place another order, I think, for tree grates or guards um going into spring.

So I think the thought is let's get a bunch of them done.

Um part of that too is we do have some other bases along Rouse that we're gonna replace.

Um they're really chintzy, and we've been seeking um new parts for that.

So we're gonna do that at the same time.

So until this onset of the URD, isn't that a URD expanse to take care of those, not the VID?

100% that's what I thought.

But we will need to lean into Mike to help us with getting some of the work done.

So thanks for your support.

We're all okay with the assessment rate.22.

That's assuming I guess there's no assessment value increase, but that's just using last year's number.

And Emily, what is the um year that we need to renew the the BID?

2030.

So it'll be good timing with the sunset of the ERD with a falling couple years after.

I assume that um that will be part of this research that we do is looking at you know how does the BID approach this um reestablish in the district during a time that we know two years later, the sunset.

So that is part of the discussion, which is why I brought it up.

What's the date of the sunset?

October 2032, I believe is our last bond payment.

Yeah.

Used to seem so far away.

It used to seem so far away.

And on the downtown safety program, so we didn't fill that role last year in the budget.

We don't mean that those money are just right into the CD, but right, the same of those receiving.

Yeah, just stay in the checking account.

And what are you what's the likelihood of filling that position going forward?

We have manual, it's all about the Blossom PD and what they have available.

And it's um those monies that you have allocated 15,000, that would be for a part-time position for just hourly a few hours a week.

That with the number of not it's like a shared beat cop concept, right?

In my mind, this 15,000, this actually isn't really for a resource officer at this time since it's not close to being filled.

This is more so when we approved this last year.

Um, if there were any initiatives that the police department saw that we could partner on, if there were security camera opportunities, lighting um in public areas.

Um so I I would expect and propose a much higher amount than the 15,000 if we were to actually look at a shared um shared cost for a resource officer.

So this is more so an initiative.

Um, but having that in that realm, knowing that if we wanted to move that direction, kind of the catch-all safety program part of our work plan.

Any other thoughts that I can take back before our next board meeting that we're look at either a final or a draft budget, if it looks pretty close to squared away, then I could go ahead and you have a similar budget or kind of goals assessment for what you do with the partnership.

I guess my head is anything about like there's any synergy between projects that we're involved in or ID relative to what I don't know what we have, 28,000 sets or what that group is doing, if there's anything on that initiative in terms of marketing, is that probably it's been relatively flat.

I know there was um a conversation on a board meeting for the DBA a few months ago of wanting to do a whole campaign to kind of reprint downtown um with other districts in the area, just saying you know, life is still downtown.

Um do you has there been recent conversation of that?

Because I know that was Prime came to give a presentation or proposal.

I don't know if that's close to fruition.

Yeah, I mean, there has been discussions about utilizing taking some of the rebranding efforts that we're doing um through the partnership and then having the DBA kind of you know have some dollars to really get that new brand out.

So similar to the the flagpole or the the banners, but more from a marketing and branding perspective.

Um so they're talking through that, they're going through the same budget perspective there.

Um, DBP is less project oriented.

So when I look at just you know the DBP from a project perspective, there's you know, maybe less fun stuff to support from a VID perspective.

I can share the budget with you, of course.

Um it's but it's pretty operational in in um respects.

But supporting the DBA, I will tell you from a marketing perspective, just from general marketing funds is huge for them because almost every dollar for the DBA is tied specifically to a program or event, right?

So they take in the money for this event or they take in the money for this program.

You know, they don't write a check to the city essentially, they you know raise funds.

It's usually very specifically allocated.

This amount is essentially the only amount on the DBA budget, which is pretty slim, you know, a little bit less than than your all's budget.

Um, that's not specifically allocated to something directly related to an event or a program that they oversee.

So I think this gives them the ability to just continue to enhance the identity and the marketing from a generalized perspective, right?

Um I guess that's really all I have for you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Um, but generally speaking, they don't really have a general fund, right?

Because their budget is very specific.

So for everything that is maybe a little less specific on the BID and the URD, the DBA is like down the down to the dollar for you know, crazy days, pink Bozeman, you know, pep rally.

This and so this is really the only, like I said, generalized funds.

Now it's not super generalized, it's very specific to general marketing.

Um, but it gives them some flexibility.

So I think they look at this and are like, thank you so much.

Um, and I think on the other flip side of it from a funding perspective, you all should basically feel the same way about them because they do a really amazing job of the tone, the brand, you know, getting that on everything, staying consistent, and we lean into them from partnership, BID, URD in a big way for them to really use these dollars wisely, make sure that it's with the identity of all the organization in mind.

Kind of that same concept of we're all partnership employees, right?

Even though we really do work very specifically with URD, B BID and DBA.

Um, this dollar amount is like thank you, DBA, for overseeing our marketing efforts, our marketing branding and tone efforts.

And I think they do an awesome job.

So does that kind of answer your question?

Okay.

Thank you.

And we don't get to see those gals around a whole lot, but I can tell you we should bring them to a board.

We need to bring them to a board meeting.

We we need to have them come in um and and really um see what we do here because it is a little foreign to them because they're every day on social media and the marketing side of things that um that we're not we're not doing every day.

Great.

Well, thank you for the feedback.

Um if you have any other thoughts, I'll reach out to Mark separately just since he wasn't able to be here today, and then um we'll look at it at the March board meeting, but I wanted to actually pin that to see if we would have a quorum at the regular scheduled March board meeting.

It's spring break.

I'm not putting it in here.

No.

No, no.

Okay, we will look to reschedule the March board meeting.

Um I'll send out an email, but maybe we'll look at Wednesday the 20 5th.

One week later than normal.

Since we have a oh, yeah.

Do you since we have a quorum today?

Is it should we vote on the budget today or is that too soon?

We can't.

Um it wasn't publicly noticed as an action item, so um we'll look do it at a feature.

Does March 25th kind of off the cuff seem to be better?

It works for me.

Okay, let's plan for that.

I'll um confirm with the city clerk that this room's available, and I'll uh adjust the calendar invite.

I think I should also open this up to public comment.

If there's anyone online that would like to make public comment, please raise your hand.

Okay.

1238.

Umic developer directors report, we have um Chris McGoffin, who started with us about three or four weeks ago.

Um, he will be um kind of still in the gap for Mike.

Mike will be down working on usually just Tuesdays.

Chris will be down on the weekends and a couple other days during the week.

Um, just as his schedule allows and as needed.

Um so if you see him around, be sure to say hello.

He's a sophomore MSU and um kind of just jumped right in and is doing great so far.

So I'm just nice.

And if again, if you guys ever see anything, please um feel free to let me know.

We still have the report of maintenance concern online, but you can also just shoot me a text or an email.

Um our budget presentation will be on the city commission calendar for May 12th.

We'll do that's the downtown BID and then all of the urban and rural districts for the city.

Um March board meeting quorum.

We have already hit that.

Um it's busy downtown, even with the lack of snow, people are definitely downtown shopping around.

So trash and recycling have been on the up and up again, graffiti slightly down, but knock on wood.

Ellie, do you you want to give an update maybe on Bozeman Creek and parking?

The fine stuff, Bozo Creek since it's top of mind.

Yeah.

Um we actually just met with um the Bozeman Creek group and the new consultants for the Bozeman Creek Vision Plan.

It's a group called Port.

Uh, they are out of the East Coast and have a lot of uh very successful waterway projects across the across the country.

Uh they are they're here, they are meeting with all the groups, um, making all the outreach.

Eric uh represented represented you all um this morning when we met with them, um, and we think there's some really great things to come with this plan.

So um right now they're they're doing their due diligence, and I think they are ears wide open, it feels like.

So I'll keep you all updated there.

Uh eho Peace Park, um, you have seen the construction over there.

Uh they have taken somewhat of a stop.

It was like a slow stop during the winter since winter didn't really happen, and um and they're working hard over there.

So they did most of the um inlet work, um, a lot of the underground work, and they will come back and the projected finish date is in June, and we are looking to have a ribbon cutting in August, um August 14th, and the um EHOS family will be very involved in that and um some old friends of EHO's flying in from um all over the country for that gathering, so pretty cool.

Um we have begun the process of renewing a downtown special improvement lighting district.

I'll keep you all updated on this process.

Um, this has been in the works for many, many years, and um we will essentially be renewing an SILD from the 1940s.

And this will require a pretty extensive public um announcement process.

Uh, I'll keep you all updated on it, but uh a good improvement for downtown, and this is our pedestrian lights and will allow us to hopefully build a budget to keep up with the maintenance even after the URD is sunset.

Uh downtown parking update.

Um, some of you may have gotten some phone calls from our consultant uh Indigo West to do some one-on-one um surveys and um and get some data.

We are going to be essentially combining um data from these one-on-ones uh surveys that will go out in the next couple weeks, as well as the working group that that developed a short and long-term list of solutions.

This is going to be one document that we really hope the that we will be handing over to the city with enthusiasm, um, and we can start um you know really starting to um knock off some of these projects that we've been talking about separately for a long time, and now we're talking about them together.

Um, and we do really feel like we're in a good place to tackle some of these items over the next year or two.

Um an RFP for a um PPP for parking infrastructure has been um in the works for several months and talked about at the URD board meeting very consistently, um, although there has been some um interest in delaying um the RFP due to um the federal building um site re-emerging.

We have been told that we're gonna hear back um regarding the federal building in early spring, maybe as early as June on the future of some of these federal buildings that were on the cell list.

Uh the federal building has been re has been taken off that list, um, but it hasn't really been talked about what the future is.

So we hope to hear back.

In the meantime, there is um a will from the URD to continuing to move forward with the development of this RFP so that we can have it in our back pocket if and when um the opportunity arises.

Um at the same time, we are working with um a consulting group out of Butte to potentially establish Blight and expand the URD to include the federal building.

Likely the expansion wouldn't just include the federal building, specifically because we've done a lot of infrastructure work around the federal building.

Um, and when I say we, I mean the city, um, which you know we have supported.

Um so we're talking about what does that expansion look like, what parcels does it include, um, and we are um talking to to professionals about that that really have um great experience with establishing blight and extending um expanding URD districts.

Um tax exempt property.

Yeah.

So that's why it wasn't on in the URD originally, is because tax exempt properties generally are um only included if they're congruent in an urban renewal district.

Can't you spend funds adjacent?

You can.

And and that is good point, Eric.

If there is perceived benefit to the district, there could be an avenue that we do not expand the district that we spend the funds um the federal building adjacent to the district instead of so there there is that avenue, and we're exploring that as well.

Does that make sense?

Okay.

Um I ri I think that's really it from me.

Is Emily, is there anything else you want me to?

Any questions, concerns?

Thoughts?

All right, thanks guys.

Um Winter Crazy Days is this weekend?

And walk the block is happening every Monday.

Um business, property owners, general public, welcome to join.

Um it's an initiative that Molly Ryan started.

It's um not so much put on, but they meet at the backstore every Monday and pop into a new business.

Um so they kind of make the rounds and then just get a chance to chat with other community members.

And that is all I have.

All right.

Anybody have anything else today?

All right.

Meeting adjourned.

Let's go home.

Goodbye.