July 15, 2014: NC Steps Leadership Meeting

July 15, 2014: NC Steps Leadership Meeting

Roseboro Community Building

Recorder: Cyndi Templin

Seventeen members present; sandwiches, cake slices, tea, & lemonade were served from Piggly Wiggly.

The monthly meeting of the NC Steps committee was called to order by Gilbert Owens at 6:15. A roll call of committee members was completed and then the individual Steps sub-committees each gave a report of their activities since June’s meeting.

First to report was Roland Hall, co-chair of the Support Business and Improvements committee. Strategy IA1 the conduction of a market and business analysis is an urgent need, since before the committee can make any movement on IA2, 3, or 4 the analysis has to be completed first. The committee looked at two firms and after consideration, made the decision to recommend the Benchmark Company to complete the analysis. The cost of the analysis, $4,000.00 will be funded by the grant. It was put to vote before the entire committee and passed unanimously.

Strategy IB1 the creation of a business survey will be handled by Janna Bass. She spoke briefly and gave the committee some sample questions that could be put on the survey

IB2 will be handled by the town itself.

IB3 Janna Bass will also be in charge of this. She will be working with one of her contacts at Sampson Community College to find a student who would like to intern with the town and serve as a business liaison.

IB4 Janna Bass, Randy James and possibly the Sampson County tourism board will be working on this.

IB5: no discussion at this time.

Strategy IC1 this concerns the facades of downtown businesses. The town already has a façade improvement grant in place.

IC2 Randy James, Janna Bass, and Richard Barefoot are working on an application for businesses to apply.

Strategy ID1 the committee is working on an updated list of available space downtown to be placed on the town’s website.

ID3 Randy James is working on signage to be placed in the windows of vacant business sites. This is to bring together the owners of downtown buildings and possible lessees of the spaces. He has been in touch with Inkspot a local company to produce the signs ay the approximate cost of $12.95 each. Roland Hall suggested that the town start with fifteen signs and then move on from there. The proposal was put to a vote and passed unanimously.

Alice Butler put forward that this project fits in with strategy three.

Strategy IE1 planned for the replacement of the fence around the town park: this has already been completed with town funds.

IE2 plans for the building of park restrooms, no action is to be taken at this time since the Town Board has proposed and funded the repair of the bathrooms in the old Railroad Depot.

IE3 no action was taken on the proposed extra parking lot.

Strategy IF1 on the proposal to create an Economic Development Group, Janna Bass, Roland Hall, and Randy James will work on reactivating RAED the Roseboro Area Economic Development group for this purpose.

IF2 no action was taken.

In a side note, Roland Hall proposed that someone from the group attend a workshop given by the organization developing the Mountains to the Sea bike trail, since Roseboro is along the route. The fee for the workshop would be $300.00 and would come out of the initial grant fund from the NC Steps Program. Alice Butler made a motion to approve Roland Hall to attend the meeting. The motion passed, 17-0.

The Strategy II sub-committee report was given by Gilbert Owens, committee chair. Three of the committee’s projects, the splash pool, multi-use building, and the First Friday Events were discussed but not focused on. The committee chose to focus on their other two projects, an adult day care study and outdoor movie equipment. The adult day care study will cost $500.00. The committee is proposing to visit adult day care centers in surrounding counties to gather information and to research all state and federal regulations and requirements to set up an adult day care center in Roseboro. The committee also discussed what would be needed as far as equipment to have Movie Nights in the Spring and Fall. A purchase of a screen or the painting of the side of a building and a projector would be necessary. Proposed sites for the movies are the building at the corner of N W Railroad and Clinton Streets or the Town Park.

The Strategy III report was given by Alice Butler, co-chair. The committee met on July 2, 2015 and discussed what company should be hired to create a branding package for Roseboro. Two companies were contacted by Laura Grey, West Depot Creative and Arnett Muldrow. The committee decided that West Depot Creative, owned and operated by Kimberly Seipal-Parks would be the best fit for the town. Alice passed around samples of Ms. Park’s work and reported to the whole committee that the cost of the branding package would be around $4,000.00. The proposal to hire West Depot Creative was put to a vote and passed 17-0. Alice then reported that Ms. Parks will be traveling to Roseboro on August 26th to gather information to assist her in the creative process and would the committee agree to change the NC Steps meeting to that day to coordinate with Ms. Park’s visit. The committee agreed to the change in meeting. Approximate date of completion of the branding package would be October. It was also reported that there will be a meeting with NCDOT on July 22nd to discuss signs to put adjacent to the new Highway 24. Cyndi Templin contacted several sign companies in the area for information on gateway signage and a kiosk sign for the Southern District Park. Roland Hall made the comment that the committees for strategy I and strategy III should collaborate when it comes time to discuss advertising the downtown business district.

With all the committees reporting, Gilbert Owens closed the meeting at 7:00 PM.