Downtown Business Improvement District Minutes 05-22-2018

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Downtown Muskegon Business Improvement District
                                        Meeting Minutes
                                         May 22, 2018
                           380 Western Ave., Suite 202 Muskegon, MI at 4 PM


1) Call to Order: 4:01 PM
   Attendance: Clyde Whitehouse, Bob Tarrant, Gary Post (Vice Chairman), John Riegler,
   Bruce Lindstrom and Doug Pollock

       Excused Absent(s): Phyllis Watson-Laudermill, Frank Peterson and Mike Hennessy.

       Guests: Dave Alexander, Downtown Muskegon Now director, Elizabeth Tibbe, DMN
       marketing and events, Dennis Lohman, Northwestern Industrial Sales and David
       Burlingame, Burlingame Administrative Services.

2) Consent Agenda

       a) Approval of Agenda, minutes March 27, 2018, and acceptance of the financial
          statements as of April 30, 2018.

       Motion: Bob Tarrant
       Support: Gary Post
       Vote: All voted in favor


3) Public Comment (on an agenda item) – The board chose to leave the floor open for the
   whole meeting allowing attendees to participate as they like.

4) New Business


     a) Dave Alexander updated the board on the May 10 hearings of Michigan Tax Tribunal
        administrative law judge on 12 properties with assessment appeals, representing four
        landowners. The major issues were direct benefits from the BID vs. the assessments.
        Two of the four property owners Reliable Towing and WWG Holdings LLC (Ginman
        Tire) came to a settlement before going through the hearing process. Maureen
        Boelkins and EJE Properties LLC went through the hearing process and all parties are
        awaiting a preliminary decisions. The city assessor and the BID also agreed to a
        stipulation on issues of capping assessments due to the same owner having adjacent
        properties in the same business. No vote necessary, information only.
     b) In completing the settlements with Ginman Tire and Reliable Towing, both owners are
        seeking service considerations from the BID board going forward. Sidewalk snow
        plowing and landscaping are potentially able to be provided in the last two years. I told


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        them I would bring those requests to the BID board but could not make any
        guarantees.

     c) Dave Alexander raised the issue of planter locations for this summer. After some
        discussion of the options for the 61 planters, a consensus formed to move about five
        planters from Western Avenue and Third Street and place them along Second Street
        from Western to Clay and along Clay Avenue at Jefferson. The board directed Dave
        Alexander to make those adjustments to better spread out the BID landscaping
        through the district. No formal action was taken.

     d) Dave Alexander explained DMN’s work on a strategic plan for downtown and the
        downtown agency. The strategic plan meeting in April included participation from both
        the BID and the Downtown Development Authority. A draft of the major directions was
        shared as the document goes to the DMN board for final approval, committees formed
        to work on the three major areas -- Live Downtown, a marketing plan and connections
        between the downtown and the waterfront. No action was taken.

        The discussion of the DMN strategic plan included John Riegler’s opinion that as well
        as the BID is doing, it might be able to go away after 2020 with an active DDA going
        forward. City Manager Frank Peterson said that the DDA’s initial efforts will be on
        revamping and upgrading the L.C. Walker Arena for the upcoming hockey season. He
        said that in the future the BID still should have specific work such as snow removal
        and landscaping but assessments might be able to be scaled back. Also in the future,
        a parking structure downtown will be needed, especially with the sale of properties for
        building developments and the opening of a convention center. Doug Pollock said that
        snow removal and beautification might be the focus of the BID after 2020. Gary Post
        said that consolidation of downtown agencies needs to happen and have consolidated
        downtown management. He said that DMN is in the best position to accomplish that
        over time.

5) Other Business

     a) Elizabeth Tibbe presented the summer lineup of downtown events, 21 in all, including
        Chalk the Walk, Street Performers and Touch the Truck (the former First Friday
        events) still being supported by the BID and produced by DMN.

6) Adjournment
   4:54 PM
   No Objection


Minutes produced and submitted by Dave Alexander, executive director of Downtown
Muskegon Now.




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