That's what we have to like.

You have handouts for I do.

I'll pass them down for the face of the phone.

Okay.

It's just a one-page year.

House Marshall.

The budget hearing for the Kraus Marshall Special Assessment District.

Is it no one?

Okay.

Again, I'm joined by Councillor Earnright, Counselor Moore, Councilor Nave, President Paniagua, America, and Jerry.

America, I will let you take it away.

Sure, thank you.

So Krauss Marshall Business Improvement District.

This is its own organization.

It has its own special assessment budget in the City of Syracuse budget.

It is overseen by a board separate board of directors.

Four are elected positions representing property owners and businesses.

And then 11 are appointed positions from City of Syracuse, Syracuse University, and Krauss Health.

I have Jerry Dallas here today, who is our board president, and also Tara Venditti with who is our vice president of our board of directors and immediate past treasurer of the organization.

Currently Brianca Hill is our board treasurer with the Krauss Marshall District.

So we started in 2001.

We piggyback with the downtown committee.

Primarily our budget takes care of security.

That's the majority of the budget.

Maintaining our area, replacing bricks, stuff like that.

Yeah, so we um downtown committee started um managing the Krauss Marshall District.

Uh I think we're in our fourth fourth year by now.

Time goes by.

Yeah.

Uh managing the district um budget and operations, and it helps with some um staff ish efficiencies as well.

So um well Dave did it for a long time.

And then when Dave Manko was retired, um we were a natural choice.

So um as Jerry mentioned, our kind of primary areas of focus are like the public realm.

So we uh have an environmental maintenance staff member uh who works up there.

It's about a nine-block area that we provide services to.

There are about 40 uh different properties within it.

Um our environmental maintenance staff does uh litter litter patrol, uh graffiti removal up there.

Um again, sidewalk snow plowing assistance, we do power washing uh throughout the year.

There are um flower planters that are up in the district to help um beautify the area.

Uh and then again, any kind of um fund, just like downtown committee, the Krauss Marshall has a cost sharing agreement, which is a separate line item with the city of Syracuse for streetscape repairs, so we split the cost of uh kiosk refurbishment or banners or brick repair or street trees, um street tree pits, uh that type of activity.

Um we the Kraus Marshalls district primary source of revenue is the special assessment, although there is a small amount of funding that is secured through uh sponsorship of the 22 flower planters that we have throughout the district.

Uh we also employ a security officer, again, retired law enforcement.

Um currently Officer Vinch is our security officer that is stationed up on the hill.

He works 35 hours a week when the students are in session and 20 hours a week when the students are not in session.

Uh he uh responds to immediate calls.

He is a um present face up on the district.

If there's uh individuals in need of support, he works with Amar security director uh and others to make sure that we're identifying you know potential users of uh behavioral health support services, and then also acts as a liaison with the Syracuse University Department of Public Safety.

Um on page two, uh in addition to the security and the environmental maintenance.

We also have a marketing function up on the hill.

So uh there are uh banners and kiosks with specific branding to identify that you're up on the University Hill area.

Uh but then we also have a website, Krauss Marshall.com, which is currently um being refreshed, and so by the end of the year, we'll be able to roll out a refreshed website that provides information about the district as well as a business directory.

And then uh both uh the downtown committee and Krauss Marshall uh utilize a tool called Placer AI, and this is pedestrian counting um software, it's all based on uh data collected from your phone, and that has been a really valuable tool to help us understand foot traffic, uh where when and where uh people are coming from, what type part of the day is most busy, and we can use that for identifying uh areas we should target for marketing, but also um helping to inform businesses if there's certain big events that are happening, there's all this potential for foot traffic uh to attract through your front door.

Um last year and continuing to this year, we added an economic development function, and this was based on a survey of the district of some of the needs and opportunities.

So what we learned is that there is a broader uh there's a desire for broader variety of businesses in the area.

There's a desire to improve building facades and storefront and sidewalk appearances, as well as address some of the parking congestion.

And so, you know, we want to encourage more businesses to cooperate and work together.

We uh when it's summertime, it's foot traffic's a little bit slower up there, so what opportunities might exist to encourage more foot traffic up on the hill during the summer months, and then um the uh JMA wireless dome has been huge at drawing uh foot traffic in.

So, how can businesses uh take advantage of some of that foot traffic?

Um so being able to work on some of these opportunities required um some staff time that creviously Krauss Marshall had not um was not part of their program lineup.

So um now there is an economic development line uh within the Krauss Marshall budget, and I'd be happy to take any questions.