COMMUNITY UNITY SOCIAL MINUTES
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2009
Present:Dave & Denise Olsen / Randy &Miki Rindt
Nikki Brown / Paul Kauzlarich
Duane Lyons / Larry Konen
Ted Kennett / Diane Still
Mark Totty / Pastor Barbara & Virgil Blanchard
John M. Silvers / Dick & Jean Sisson
Ted Cowan / Eric Wolfe
Willy Barsten / Tanya Luke
Tashae’ Jones / Kelsie Taylor
Ellye Main / Marion Main
Jediah Main / Mikel Davis
Kathy Taylor / Kathy Farnsworth
D. Chase Foster / Dan Groves
Al Farnsworth / Robbin Gregory
Eva Valdivia / Tressa Stadel
Shelby Mears / Donna Kime
Dan Cypher / Chuck Harris
Peggy Harris / Elliot Baker
Donda Lambert / Jerry Steinert
Rick Carney / Rhonda Schab
Jeff Ranger / John McGowan
Randy Juette
Social Event / The evening started with a hour-long social time to visit with fellow attendees and get to know one another. Great food and appetizers was provided by American West Bank. Mr. Dan Groves acted as Facilitator and came up with the great idea of having everyone get up and introduce themselves to as many new people as they could in five minutes. This really got the social buzz going.
Call to Order
Introductions
Roll Call / The meeting was called to order at 6:30 PM by Mr. John McGowan. Mr. McGowan welcomed the Business Leaders and Community Members who had arrived. Mr. McGowan is in hopes that this meeting will draw partnerships & communication between us all here tonight. Mr. McGowan also announced that he wanted everyone in attendance to please sign in on the sheet that was being passed around.
SmallTown Opportunities-Mr. Dan Kelleher
Executive Director of Committee for Downtown Yakima / Mr. Kelleher thanked the People of Naches, the NachesSchool District, Town Council and the Community Members for coming to tonight’s meeting. Mr. Kelleher lives up on the Nile and has just moved to the area a couple of months ago. He has been fortunate enough to stop several times in our community and conduct business on his way to or from work.
Mr. Kelleher then proceeded to show a picture of a man who had a congressional metal of honor and wanted to know if any of us had a clue as to who he was or why he was famous. It ended up being Admiral James Stockton, the running mate of Ross Pero in 1993. He had his 15 minutes of fame when he said in the middle of a debate “Who am I and why am I here?” That is probably what we are thinking, why would the organizers of the Community Unity Social ask Mr. Kelleher here tonight? Mr. Kelleher is currently the Director of the Committee to Improve Downtown Yakima. Mr. Kelleher has worked in various communities including, Kent, Richland, HamptonVirginia, LouisvilleKentucky and now Yakima. Mr. Kelleher brings cooperation and collaboration amongst community members and business’s so that they may improve their communities.
Mr. Kelleher informed the audience that he would give them examples of what other communities have done and hopefully that will get the creativeness flowing in our group of people and inspire good things. About a year ago the Yakima Business Improvement District was formed and their goal was to promote and attract visitors and tenants to the downtown core. The business owners wanted a clean and safe area. Out of this came the purple shirt ambassadors, these ambassadors are responsible for many different things, such as:
Sweeping/Litter Collection
Landscape/Planting
Security Services
Hospitality Services
Human Services
The Yakima Business Improvement District also tries to work with the local business’s and ask that they distribute to the theme and place out their own floral displays. Since this has taken off, a new Downtown is blooming program has derived from it all. The local downtown businesses compete for the best outdoor display and the winner walks away with the Orchid Award. This year Santiago’s was awarded the best landscaping presentation. The Improvement District has really noticed that awards really do motivate people to get involved. The first year of the program, there aren’t too many participants because the word is just getting out, but the second year people really buckle down and start competing.
As for the Purple Shirt Ambassadors, they all carry radios and can call police for assistance or to report a crime. These ambassadors help with low level problems, such as pan handling, public intoxication, open containers, homelessness, and some human services, such as getting people the help they need and sometimes they even deliver these individuals to the appropriate places that offer the help.
Since the Improvement District has started they have been improving on their marketing and promotions. The downtown business’s have what they call 1st Friday’s. During the 1st Friday of every month many of the businesses participate in providing more entertainment and more food specials for that one night. It has become very successful since its beginning.
Another promotional tactic is what they call Corkage Free Zone. What this program does is not charge penalties for bringing in your own bottle of wine. The catch is that it has to be purchased from one of the downtown wineries that night with your receipt shown at the restaurant. This has been one of their most popular promotional programs and has earned lots of recognition. There are many restaurants and wineries that are choosing to participate.
The group stays connected by having a monthly roundtable breakfast. At those meetings they are updated on marketing strategies and what beautification projects are going on. At the next monthly meeting they will be updated on the downtown parking, as there have been new meters that have been installed downtown.
All of these programs are voluntary and participants are encouraged to keep up their beautification projects. There are voluntary clean up days. The street ambassadors can be quite expensive, but are well worth the money. You can also cut costs, buy sharing the expense or paying for part time ambassadors. Promotional events can be done on the cheap, such as decorated store fronts for the holidays. Sidewalk chalk decorations can also be incorporated. You want to make sure that the events showcase the distinctive quality of the town.
The types of events that would be distinctive for our town would be hunting, fishing, skiing, sportsman days and fruit oriented events. The Town could even sponsor health & safety fairs, bicycle safety checks, blood rives, child finger printing, face painting and maybe even meeting McGruff the crime dog or other characters. Success requires commitment and the ability to work together. Differences need to be set aside. It is ok to agree to disagree, but projects need to be followed through and you will be happy that you have done what you have. With all of these tools you will have a cleaner, prosperous town that is fun to live in.
With no further discussion Mr. Kelleher concluded his portion of the meeting at 7:05 PM.
Audience participation / Mr. Dan Groves spoke to the audience and informed them that the Community Unity goal was to form an association that would build connections between the business and citizens of the community.
Mr. Groves then invited the people sitting at the different tables to sit together and brain storm on the different events, and/or projects that we would like to see in our community and capture those ideas on paper. After this discussion we would talk about the next meeting and try and get a flavor for some of the kinds of things people were interested in doing in the community. Some of the ideas that were generated are listed as follows:
Chalk art on the Street by the Gazebo
A new Welcome to Naches Sign with business names
A family fun night
Main Street Improvements
A light parade
A day of caring
High School Community Service
Customer entrance and exit signs
Tailgate party’s at the home games
Upgrade for current local activities
Stadium improvement project
Skate park
Seasonal Events such as Christmas Tree lighting
Clean up day
Flower planters
Community activity listing for new visitors and new residents
Taste of Naches
Community clean up for youth
Store Front Decorations
Signage for Depot and Downtown area
Bike friendly community (educate community)
A Town theme
Identify community value
Trail improvement
Award recognition system
Recycling program
Use of the bandstand
Street dancing
Kids bike parade
Mr. Groves then discussed the few ideas that had been presented and agreed that there needed to be some kind of follow up meeting to act on some of these ideas. Mr. Groves also thought that it would be a good idea to conduct this type of meeting on a regular basis to encourage projects and forums.
Pastor Bard from the Nazarene church addressed the audience and informed them that their church had been conducting a Christmas tree lighting for the past three years and that their event for this year would take place on December 5, 2009
Mr. John McGowan again addressed the audience. He was very happy to see the turn out at tonight’s meeting and pointed out the different representation from all of the different organizations in attendance. Mr. McGowan asked the room how this group should continue, and to think about what Naches could be if one-half of these ideas came to be.
Mr. McGowan will have Naches Valley Chamber President, Mr. Randy Juette post the next meeting up on the Chamber website so that we are all aware. It will be tentatively set for early to mid-January. Mr. McGowan also wanted to send out copies of the minutes via e-mail because it is just too costly for postage.
Chamber President, Randy Juette invited everyone to the Chamber meeting held the 3rd Wednesday of the month at the Depot at 6:00 PM.
Mr. Groves asked the members in attendance before they left if they would mind placing a few answers to some questions on a piece of paper and leaving them at the ends of the tables. The questions were:
1. What would you keep in the meeting?
2. What was not ok or what would you do differently?
3. What did you learn?
4. How would you like to participate?
Continue Meeting/Adjournment (7:33 PM) / With no further discussion to come before the organizers and participants, the meeting was adjourned.
Respectfully Submitted,
______
Tanya J. Luke
11/12/09 Community Unity Social Minutes1