Downtown Development Authority Board - Regular Meeting

on the road. So, okay. Um, I guess we'll start with a roll call. Katie Souls, Parks Thompson, Tiffany Gatesman, Steve Fitzgerald, Greg Beckler. Just need to make a move a mo a movement to approve the agenda right now. I move to approve the agenda. Second. All in favor? I I there any additions to this agenda that we need to make? No. Awesome. Um, I'll move to approve the consent agenda. Yeah, need to move. Anybody second?

So moved. Okay. All in favor? I I minutes. I think that's the consent, right? Yeah, that was. Yeah. Perfect. All right. Cool. Well, looks like we have for the agenda here. Pretty big agenda today. Open forum. Yep, we have open forum. Is anybody here for open forum? No, that works for me. So, we have discussion and possible action of the DDA 2026 budget and I think that's in a packet here.

Yes, it is in the packet and there are some printouts as well. Um,

it's on the back page. So the budget is largely the same budget that has previously been approved um as the draft budget. This has been presented to our board of trustees just as part of the general overall town budget. Um there will be a formal public hearing on the budget at the next board meeting with the hope to be approving a final budget at the December 4th meeting. Um, so that public hearing is November 19th. Um, but I did just present this to the board last week. Um, there weren't any questions or comments. Um, the budget message is quite similar to last year. Just kind of walks through the revenues and expenses. Obviously, most of our revenues with the um exception of about $500 in interest comes from tax increment and then money that's being rolled over from the previous budget. Um it walks through the different expenditures um that we've discussed areas of like district enhancements and community outreach because we didn't really spend any money this past year or very small amounts. Um those are about double what we had budgeted last year without me rolling over. And the budget message just kind of discusses that that we kind of explored different enhancements, but due to kind of various moving pieces, ongoing plans like the wayfinding study and the tout comprehensive plan, um it just didn't seem like the right time to move forward with any of the different avenues that were explored. But hopefully with some of those plans, um the wayfinding's been finalized. We're still waiting to see what the various municipalities being Frasier, Winter Park, as well as the resort are going to um move forward with as priorities for the year to come. I know the town is putting some money in their budget for that. Um but once that

happens, I think the DDA may be in a position if they wanted to take on a piece of that wayfinding project in terms of signage for Frasier. We now have kind of the model for that signage. Um it's been put a little bit on hold as a collaborative effort with Winter Park as Winter Park town manager left in September. Um they have hired a new town manager that starts in January. So hopefully we'll have a joint meeting with Winter Park and wayfinding will be one of those topics of discussion um early next year. And then the Frasier Town comprehensive plan is also um did we actually have that been published for the public yet? Do you know the the

I don't they the survey is available live for people to go in and take that. Um but I don't know what the actual comp plan was. But okay, it was on the meeting agenda.

It was on the meeting agenda. I will send that to you all. It either has just been published for the public or will be published here very shortly for um public feedback and comments. So it would be great if the DDA if you want to weigh in. I know we've weighed in as a group um in meetings specific to the kind of economic development downtown vision portion, but you can see the plan in its entirety and please send it to your colleagues, friends, um anybody that might have opinions and thoughts. Um but we're looking to adopt that. I believe at this point it's been pushed likely to January to give a little more time for public comment. Yeah, it is in the planning commission. Yep. I'm looking at packet for tonight. Okay. It is.

Yeah. And then they do have a comment on there about it's open for public comment. Yes. Great. Thank you. You're welcome.

Yeah. So, um I think it would make sense with this budget. Last year, we included the work plan. I think the work plan um is due for an update. So, I opted not to include the work plan in the formal budget message. I think it would make sense um possibly December, but perhaps at our January meeting to really kind of revisit that and try to map out our priorities for the year in terms of what we're looking to do. Um we can possibly revisit some of the projects, some new projects. I know we've talked about a lot of different things. So again, um the budget message just kind of speaks to all of that generally. Um Lori, did you want to make any comments on the budget? No,

the changes from the last draft. Yeah. If you have questions, um, you used the last one I sent you. Yes. Okay. And this is just slightly different from the last one that the DDA board saw approved because Lori added in um interest from Colorado Trust for 500 and kind of just updated some of the rollover amounts. Um, so that's where some of those dollar amounts are slightly different in terms of the revenues, but we're still at just over just under 10,000 in terms of expected kind of unassigned fund balance. And then the expenditures all remain the same.

And the plan is for next month to review a projection out into the future. Yes. So, one of the items for next month's meeting, um Troy has looked at some tax increments projections into the future so we can have a better idea of when we expect these revenues to to start climbing a bit and to have a little more money to work with. Yeah, that'll just help with all the planning. Yeah. No, I think that'll be that will be helpful for sure. Yeah. And I will say um ever since that meeting around the signs and the wayfinding thing um you know I cycle a ton so I've been out and about in my gravel and mountain bike.

The signage in this town is actually pretty great. Um, and there's just about every trail um is labeled and um I don't know what the individual was talking about when she said that there is no signage on the Frasier River Trail cuz at every single access point in Frraasier, there is a sign and a map and information. So, yeah, I think it's great we're going to conform to a standard for the valley, but it's not like we're lacking. And Sarah had just recently for the town after we went through the whole logo and rebranding for the town done signage for um that that you see around town. So

if that stays up for a couple more years, I don't think that's the end of the world. Um but eventually they're looking at making that more uniform with Winter Park and um increasing I mean it is they we seem to do everything a little smaller than perhaps what would be ideal to to kind of see it. So I think that that text will grow. Um but it's good to have that perspective. I never paid much attention to it until that meeting and everywhere I went yep there's one there's one it's eight feet tall. you know,

there is a lack of I don't know, I've never been out there, but a lack of signage or a lack of being able to be seen. Um, leaving the trail going to Coney Road 8 and then having to go to 40 to the ball fields cuz there's a lot of people that go on that property. Um, yeah, and I I take that turn all the time. You're right. There's access. There's access. There's a sign at the eight access. Um, but does it say that it doesn't really direct you to the ball field? Yeah. Um, so yeah, that that would be a hole in there is a sign at the ball fields though at some point. I just can't remember where. It's right there on the corner.

Is it right on the corner? Yeah. Yeah. Oh, any other questions or comments about the budget message?

It's pretty straightforward to me. I like it and I like how you've um just explained expenditures, just the basics on what the money is used for. You did a very nice job. Thank you. I think it'll get, you know, we'll see a lot more things added in the next 5 years. I think now still with the DDA being pretty new, we're still trying to find exactly our place. You know what I mean? And so I think that's good that everybody that came today thanks for coming because we do need some help with the new board here and kind of finding and assigning things so that we can do appreciate that. Um

yeah and I will say the budget line items you know are similar to the level of spec specicity I could never say that word specificity in our town budget. Um, so I don't know that we need, you know, 20 or 30 budget line items. We might just have a better idea going into the year of what it say no community outreach or district. Um, I think Lori would not be super happy with us.

Um, I think, you know, at the stage that the DDA is right now, um, I mean, that can grow organically as it comes up. Um, because sometimes, you know, You don't want to be overdetailed because you'll wind up with a hundred of these if you're trying to be a little too specific. So, we try to just stick with the general right now. And then when I'm doing the the books and things, I go, "Okay, what were they up to? Oh, they went to a training. They went to here. They did this." Um, as it goes, if things start to reoccur, that's when I'd probably uh let Sarah know or let you guys know. Um, hey, I think you're getting enough going on here that we need something more specific.

Yeah. But right now, there you go. And then when we put this together, this doesn't officially get sent to the state of Colorado. You are a separate budget, separate from the town, but the board can approve everything. and they'll do you know get all the approvals and the the you know allocations you know where they have we have you have permission to spend the money and where the money's allocated gets put into the big budget packet which is uh I'll submit about January. I usually do that about the middle of January just in case something big and exciting comes up.

Yeah. Um, so there's time to still kind of sort of make adjustments, but once it's approved, then it just sits. I really don't touch it and just wait and see what may or may not come up. Cool. Any more questions on this or can we move on? Um, we need to approve it, but we can approve that. So, we want to make a motion. Make a motion to approve the combined budget message. I second. All in favor? I DDA town Frasier.

Oh, sorry. IGA. I listed that wrong. Funny. I was looking for last year's and it kept not I couldn't find it. It wasn't coming up because I kept putting OU in. So, um I apologize that I also put that on the agenda, but it is in fact an IGA. Um intergovernmental agreement. There we go.

Serves a similar purpose. Um the only thing I changed really in this was the the dates. So, this is basically the same IGA that we approved last year and the town board approved for support from the town to the downtown development authority. Um I think it is still appropriate particularly as the DDA is waiting to have more revenues to continue to lean on the town for support. Um it is quite standard I think for the clerk to to play the role of document holder um for downtown development authorities and for finance to continue to hold the budget. Um, as we've discussed in the future, I think it would be appropriate to potentially have somebody else in that executive director role, whether it be um like a consultant service or somebody part-time. I don't know that you're going to need a full-time director anytime in the near future. Um, but again, it's pretty much the same IG. Our next item, we can talk about some additional staff support that Cali might be able to provide the DDA um in terms of some different things that we might be looking at for next year. Um but any questions? This would be presented to the town board at their December 4th meeting when they are reviewing and approving various IGAs with different entities that the town works with.

It's the same as last year. It's probably good for this year cuz I don't think we've had anything change so far. So, right. And the staff at the court is what really has pulled this all together. So, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. Appreciate that. You guys have done excellent job. Of course. Make a motion to approve the IGA between town of Frasier and the DDA. Seconded. All right. All in favor? I I Okay. So, we're going to move on to social media and event support. And I know we're kind of pulling in Cali for that, right?

Sounds like it. Yeah. So, we were discussing this a few days ago and I feel like the DDA having an Instagram at the moment is not premature.

It's a little premature. I don't really think there's a whole lot to promote on it. And if we are going to promote something on it, I think it should be fairly professional looking. Um, and it's not due to anybody or anything that's gone on so far, but I think that we need to kind of if you are going to be helping us, we need to provide you with content so you don't have to go get it cuz I I just feel like that's unfair. And I feel like promoting the businesses within the DDA, uh, we have to do that somewhat equally. So like building content that way. Um it it I don't think any one of us is going to be someone that's like, "All right, I'm going to go get all this content." And I feel like that is somewhere where we could hire a local photographer to kind of go out and and maybe some a graphic designist or we could we could we could put a a little something in the budget to build ads for these businesses or to build, you know, kind of our promotions for these businesses or events and then give it to you to to post. I I feel like the content I I don't want to put that on you cuz I know that that's a lot of work.

And could I just one one uh nuance in there that I I don't think uh we're addressing is there are events that take place in the community that drive sales tax revenue that drive revenue to businesses uh etc. Um, and I do think that that's a great collaboration for the work that Kelly does on behalf of the town and bluntly Frasier Valley Arts to make sure that Fire and Ice, the Mural Festival, Plane Air, etc., etc., National Theater Live, every single one of those comes with the opportunity for the patron who attends them to come and spend money in the community

and that serves the DDA. So, I would think that our um limited Instagram presence would be to follow, resend um and piggyback on what goes into that. I think reposting would probably be a good idea for anything in the DDA really.

Um but then, you know, then it comes down to like the look of the feed and what you want that to be. I think those are great posts because they're done really well. But if it comes down to like you know say just a business posting something then is it is it really the right mission statement or you know so we would kind of have to create some so to speak I don't know sort of bylaws around that like what we're going to yeah what's posted what's yeah what is but I think reposting is great probably the easiest and most sensical thing to do just because it's like hey we're just promoting what's going on here. We're not driving it. We're just supporting it. So,

and I mean like, you know, I know this is the next subject, but like ski ride save promotion, like that's something we could build something for. You know what I mean? I know last year that didn't really go far.

Yeah. Well, just to jump in with a little bit of background and context as a reminder. Um last year Abby, who um isn't here today, but she had suggested building out social media, created a plan, um fell through on actual implementation, right? And Aby's got a million businesses and had a third baby. And so, um she was the first to be like, I can't actually do this at the end of the day. So, we had talked about talked with Sarah Wick about helping to do that. Um and she also just kind of didn't get to it. So, um, to provide a little more context, Callie was hired by the town, was it starting last year? Yeah, a year and a half ago.

Has it been that long? Okay. Year and a half ago. Um, on a part-time basis based on her role with the public arts committee um to help out with the town events. So, she's done a lot with Fire and Ice, Picnic in the Park, and uh, Mural Festival. Um, so Sarah and I had talked about she has some hours that are already approved by the town and in the town budget where she could potentially help if the DDA wanted to try to do some I I'm not looking for the DA to do another fire and ice, but you know, if there were some small scale events or anything like that. I know we've got the conference series on here as a topic of discussion. Um, that she would be able to help with some of that execution and if we did want a social media presence that she could help with that. um and I think would be more effective at getting something versus nothing out if that's something that the DDA wants to have. So I have given her the plan that Abby started. Um and I know she had sent that out originally as a Google doc for anybody to provide input or content. Um I think you're right in terms of if we're promoting businesses that has to be done fairly. Um one of the ideas in the past has been that

a simple form or something is sent out and businesses provide content. So maybe starting with businesses that receive like a business enhancement grant and showing their new facelifts, but putting it a bit on the business if they want to be promoted. Um, and then we're happy to, you know, polish it and share across the board kind of thing. So um, it is up for discussion and we can definitely do a more deep dive into social media and what that looks like if that's something board wants to do either in December, early next year. Um, but that was the idea of of just having kind of more boots on the ground for the TVA and staff support to help with execution of things that the board might want to do.

Cali, after looking at the documents and everything, do you have any common suggestions or have you kind of thought about what the process to help the DDA would look like?

Yeah, I mean, I've read over some of these things and I mean, it all sounds I mean, fairly simple. It's not, it doesn't sound hard to enhance any of the businesses by sharing or trying to promote them with some extra photos. Obviously, I do a lot of the events in town. So, it's additional events, paying for stuff like that seems really simple. Um, I don't think I have anything to add to this because it was longer than I expected it to be for an ambitious plan. very um so yeah I mean definitely some ideas for like how you can lay out the social media to make it I don't know um look more aesthetically pleasing for

right the whole that was my exact thought I was like if they're going to come to this page it needs to be the right look yeah yeah definitely and I mean it's easy enough to make different you know bubbles of topics for different stages and have it look nice and uniform. Does um that whatever Abby came up with have like a schedule of how often stuff's being posted or like do you agree with like I think social media is great if you have enough to post and you're consistent about it. Yeah, I definitely think consistency is the key. Yeah. Um she does have a monthby-month framework. Mhm.

Um don't know if it was like weekly things that she had on here. I don't know if she got that specific because I think I think it's worth like dedicating her time and effort to if it's like we're going to see the value of it. I think it's like at least whether it's just reposting a story once a week or something that just keeps that kind of momentum going so that people have a reason to follow and be like, "Oh, I get information from here." Like the town the town post just enough to be like, "Oh, it's worth following. I get information." Yeah. The stories are easy to do. I think that

Yeah. And so if I think if there's a low enough lift but meaningful enough impact of like, hey, let's post every week or repost every week so that we get traction, I think it's worth doing and glad you have the time to do it. Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, that's definitely something that we can figure out. I mean, if it's just like two different days a week that there's different things posted. She does have a couple like meet the DVA members host live Q&A sessions. Um, I think obviously that part would be on you guys. Um, but yeah, I mean we we could do that and be consistent. Yeah.

Yeah. I think if you need like momentum on something within the DDA to be done, like you need the town behind it. I think that that's the better way to go. Like you could get a poll started. I think that's kind of what she meant by that. like because you can you can post polls on story or whatever and then it could be reshared. But I really think the only way for the DDA to pop off on Instagram is for every single DDA member that has an Instagram to be sharing those posts. Like it it it's a chain reaction, you know? So like if I post something then my friends are posting it then it and then Winter Park Resort posts it cuz I was skiing then it actually gets traction. But if we're just going to post it to the DDA page, nothing's going to happen. So DDA has to post it. Then I have to see that and say, "Well, I'm a DDA member and I post it to my story. Steve has to do it." You know, like, and that's something typical for a board like this to do to grow it. Otherwise, you're just going to be posting and it's going to do nothing. So

yeah, I mean, we've definitely learned that with Ra. Have to dump significant amounts of money to a host they're seen. It's a value relative to print ads and things like that. So, we're we're trending, as Cali knows, we're trending towards much more use of Insta and Facebook. Sure. Well, and that's and it's the same thing, too, like we want more people at these meetings, then people need to be posting on the Facebook cuz how's the town going to really find out? All your friends find out because you post whether they like it or not. So, you know, if you want more people or traffic to something, then we have to share it. Oh, totally. Yeah. Bring it on.

Subject near and dear to my heart. So, I can um So, this is John Henley. So, um not a promo, but if you don't know, I have a major show coming up in Miami um in December. Uh our bazelle is it's one of the largest shows in the world. um my social media doesn't do anything comparatively unless I have those

pickups, right? So, I do these other groups. Um, the the the business is Redwood Art Group. Um, and they have fairs all over the country, but unless they pick up, unless I get them to collaborate and it gets to their viewers who are actually the collectors or anything else because all of my followers, they're already usually my customers or my collectors or anything else and they ain't driving to Miami, right? Um, the other thing is the only reason I'm here today is because I saw Parks post on social media about the event. There's just too much out there. And everybody knows how I try and be involved in my communities. There's just too much out there, right? So, that re-sharing that growing that organically is. But my my other thing is you guys have to come up with a goal. I didn't hear anybody state what the goal of even having social media is for the DDA. So I don't even without that goal, I don't know that there's even worth any effort to having the post go out or to the due because it to the outside public taking off my business hat. the outside public. I don't know how many of your residents actually know that there is a DDA and or what it does or or or and something I've been on a a big kick about lately is separating the part-time residents from the first, you know, the the full-time residents. They're all just residents. They all pay taxes, you know, they all pay property taxes. They all do sales revenue. But that was that was something else. So, you know, seeing what that goal is for the DDA to have the social media and what it's driving of that revenue, start there, then worry about where we're going with the sharing and everything else.

Yeah, I I I appreciate that. I I think um some of the context you may not have is, you know, we've been talking about our our Instagram and social media presence for sub previous meetings and the goal has been around uh informing the public about events such as you just cited. you know, the the the trigger for you coming was you saw it and to do what we can with our promotion um arm, but to just build a a basic presence. So, the goal conversation is kind of behind us um so that we could establish that and have it. Now, we're mostly talking about what we do with it until we're robust enough to to really go

and we're hoping I think that some of those needs kind of from the community come through that. So there might be some comments or something saying we need more park benches or we need some bike racks or whatever. like that's the sort of stuff that the DDA can handle and we would love to handle but it just no one's come to us yet for with that you know and so I think and then it would make you know business for guys like you or other people in the community that weld or you know make artsy things like we could potentially do things like that if there's a need and someone says we need it you know.

Yep. So, my intuition too tells me we should um really kick it off when we do have something that we're putting money into that is clearly of benefit to the community. Yeah. And versus kind of a nebulous, well, we can do whatever we need to benefit our community within the DDA boundary, but um to have something that we that we fund that we can say, okay, look, this is nice.

Well, and I I just see no downside to having Cali or whomever um serve in the capacity of doing that when those events arise as well as um re re retweeting, reposting the events that they're happening in the community to just extend it and you know somewhat to um the comment just made to also build traffic to the Instagram and Facebook sites for the DDA for such a time when it's more robust. And I am a bit of a dinosaur because I still don't have I think I open a DDA or an Instagram account, but I've never used it. Yeah, that that I will tell you we were we spent at Frraasier Valley Arts um last year

uh Cali helped me out here. But for the mural festival, which we helped the town with, and then plane air, we spent a little over a thousand bucks for both of those events. Um Sarah did cloud art mural festival. Well, we we we posted all that. So all that traffic came through us and it was 1,600. Yeah. Um and we no we spent we got reimbured for 1,600. Um and uh the ability to target somebody who frequents this valley who has an interest in or a second home or primary resident that sort of thing

was remarkably accurate. And it I mean we sold out plane air uh even though we increased the number of tickets dramatically and we did we did less traditional marketing this year and largely on that. So it was cheaper and more effective. And I think too be a great asset for this. Yeah. And I think like the real power of the DDA2 is not spending the $40,000 we have in public whatever the bucket was, but you know incentivizing development and things with rebates. And I think that'll be something we can kind of plug to really stoke excitement on social media soon is like

the DDA is enabling a multi-million dollar project. here's what we have available and then targeting like you know users of that space that we want to see as part of the comp plan and the downtown vision I think will social media will be a useful tool for that totally spread that message I think that's a major benefit of the DDA it's just we're not there yet you know but it's but we're getting there really soon with some stuff to you know say the DDA is you know providing a tax rebate for future development like you know that'll that'll will really help

communicate the power of it and how invested Frasier is. You know, you're not spending million dollars today, but it's over the time, you know, yeah, choosing to

put that money towards getting the types of thing Frasier wants to see, the DDA wants to see in its downtown, which I think is important. And I'll just as a reminder, one of the buckets of the plan of development is this um area where business spirit and creativity are intertwined and really focusing on kind of supporting local businesses and building up a downtown brand. Um so some of the goals for that strategy are promoting and supporting a sustainable local economy where all businesses may thrive, develop building investment programs that support local character, local arts, and locally owned businesses. Create a distinct downtown brand and marketing strategy to promote the downtown as a regional destination. Support public art, street level activation, placemaking, and physical enhancements that make downtown unique and encouraging entrepreneurship through business development support programs, inclusion of creative spaces, co-working incubator, maker spaces, retail opportunities. Um, so I think with this goal in particular, there is a space for kind of marketing and promotion and social media. what that looks like. Um, I think in the future if the DDA wants to throw more money into it, working with, you know, professional influencers or, you know, whoever it may be, um, I think I think can make sense. Um, but I think starting to build some level of presence. Um, and just helping with that marketing and promotion and sharing. Yep.

Um, and there is a lot of social media out there and I constantly struggle with because the DDA is most of Frasier. is pretty much almost all of our commercial corridor. Um there is a lot of overlap with Explore Frasier which Sarah um I think does a great job. Sarah Wick does a great job managing and Cali works very closely with Sarah so I think they can collaborate on this too to have some distinction while also sharing. Um but Sarah I see that you snuck in. Do you have any comments um or suggestions or

I mean I I was listening to you guys online. I would just my my opinion about this is just like don't overthink it. I mean you're not trying to promote Chanel or anything like that. So I would say just start doing stuff right now. It doesn't as long as it goes with the guidelines that you have been given. You can utilize, you know, the town's branding and cuz the logo looks the same. So use the the colors, the fonts and everything. Create little graphics. Um everybody has a phone. Like she's got a phone. She can shoot photography. It doesn't have to be super duper high quality right now. If you're going to do some bigger promotion, then yes, maybe spend some money on a video um that you can't shoot yourself. But like you see creators all the time just shoot on their phone and use the the stuff that they do have. I mean, I shoot with my phone quite honestly a lot. So

So I guess that's I mean ski ride save, right? Like that's that's sort of in the social media category. Um, I had the idea of just paying an influencer to ride the ski train and then just promoting the save um the ski ride save promotion and just doing it through them and collaborating with them. So like my friend has 10 million followers. She would ride the train up and she does this sort of stuff all the time, right? Like that's what that's what she does. she gets paid to do that and you do a collaboration with them, then you have the 10 million people as an audience immediately for that promotion. Um, not that I want to do that, but I think that it is it's it's a different way of marketing that the town hasn't done yet. I don't know if you've done that yet, paid influencers, but I think that that would be kind of fun for the DDA because it's promoting the downtown. Um, and it's not going into like an elaborate like commercial, you know?

And so we're kind of staying out of that realm, but still showing people with other people that that this is how it works. You get on the train here, it's fun. You have your glass of wine, you eat your food, and you ski, and then you head back, you know? And that's that's kind of what a you know, that's that's what an influencer is going to do. But they're going to make it compact in 15 to 30 seconds and they they already have their format and that's why they have their followers. You're just saying that our format or our town fits your format and your uh target demographic.

I think all the more reason to get something going and you have the time to do it. So great. Yeah. Yeah. I don't really know much about social media. All I know about is getting

Introduce yourself. Sorry. And Cook and Meister. Um so for getting the businesses to do if you're wanting to do like highlights, we found um that sending out a form generally gets a pretty low response rate. It's secondary to what they're trying to do in their everyday. But if you can have someone go out quarterly, send a flyer out ahead, an email out ahead. We're going to be showing up on this day throughout the day at businesses. If you're there, you can tell us about your business. we're going to collect that footage and then you roll out that footage over the whole quarter and then people start to catch on to it, but they don't have to do anything. They're just doing their day and you say, "Tell me the most exciting thing about your business in 30 seconds, right? Grab it, go." That's all you need. You can use a still or the video, but that way you're going to get potentially higher participation because you're not going to it's not going to be relying on scheduling or,

you know, a dialogue with them to do that. Good idea.

That's a great Thank you. One more in piggybacking on it, John Henley. So I think in my experience in working with the different municipalities, there is a there's an old saying that says the avoidance of pain is a higher motivator than the promise of reward. And a lot of people like to complain. Has anybody heard of that before? So especially business owners, right? And especially with government groups. So the idea of that Parks mentioned in f in kind of in passing, but hey, what do you want guys want us to do? So I think maybe a little bit of a campaign, not through the social at first so much, but like you know, hey, do you know we're doing this? This is some pre-promo time for you or you know, but how do you want us to see, right? And then you can promote your accolades via the social media. Hey, we're putting in, you know, fire and ice drop and then this is did you know that fire and ice drives this much sales revenue towards here, right, as a social media post, right? And make and have that part of your target of what that is. But if you started off with taking away the fear of anger or the the taking, you know, hey, we gave you your voice, then they have no people don't have a room to complain at that point. Yeah, we we were talking about that a couple meetings ago.

It's like, "Hey, yeah, so here's your place to do it." When I think of like the offer to promote and give them something is a good way rather than just like the coffee talk, like come tell us your problems or what you want to see from us like, "Hey, we're going to take photos of every business and promote it on social media for free." You know, that's a good way to kind of get a good response. And then you kind of learn all those other things about what are their concerns, what what are they having trouble with because you always hear it from every business owner about oh yeah, you know, the town is one way or the other and how things are going. So Oh, there's always something. Yeah, I think that's a great idea.

Agree. I I think this horse is thoroughly dead. Thank you. All right. Um, so we can, if people would like to build out more of a defined social media plan, we could definitely bring that back. I'm happy to circulate what Abby previously put together um, with any added thoughts that Kelly has, but I feel like I'm generally hearing that people are good with having the added support. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Okay, great. And in full disclosure, I just for those that don't know, Callie's other part-time job amongst others is she runs the events for Frasier Valley Arts. Um, and it's a a pretty involved activity, but it dovetales very nicely with these roles. Would you like this or ambassador? Should we do we need to approve that? I mean, I don't know that there's really you wanted to make a motion, but I don't think we need anything formal. She falls within the added staff. We need to talk about the ski ride save promotion now, too. Yeah. So, let me go ahead and pull this up just to show you.

Let's do it. All right. Give you some context.

So, last year we started this kind of, you know, the DDA was getting underway with different things. Um, and as we came to realize kind of late in the game that the ski train um, program was being, and it's not actually called the ski train, but that the seed dot in the state, they were expanding it. Um, they were going to offer more service, more days, cheaper tickets. Um, and we're really trying to to promote it. Um, so the idea was kind of twofold that we try to promote people now that they can get off in Frraasier, which was something new last year. They could get on and off in Frraasier. Previously, it stopped at the resort um and then would come just sit past Frraasier all day. Um so now it makes a stop at the resort um makes a stop in Frraasier. So trying to promote riding the the train. Um and then as well as just trying to promote Frasier and encouraging people like you can take the train to Frasier, not a skier, great. Come to Frraasier for the day. You're a skier, great. Go ski, come have a whiskey, ride the train home, whatever it may be. Um, so promotion was pretty limited. Sarah put this together on the Explorer Frasier website. Um, and we had just reached out to different businesses and asked who would like to participate. Um, we are in the process of trying to confirm who would like to continue this year. Um, so right now this is not published. Um, but these are the businesses that participated last year with what they offered. Um, and we put it out on social media. Uh I mean we had a couple print things but it was it was pretty minimal advertising. Um so the discussion today is we talked very briefly at our last meeting if we wanted to continue it. I think doing something lowlevel is pretty low investment and there's no reason not to. Um but if we do want to continue with it what we want it to look like. Um we had talked about um I think Nick is not here but he had talked about like a passport idea. Um

and Sarah's explored a couple things she can talk about. Um, we also can throw some money at advertising, be it an influencer or kind of the more u traditional online forums that Sarah has used. Um, but just what we want to to do. Well, and we certainly could connect our social media marketing to the railroad um because they're going to have a vested interest in that. Um, I I I don't see any downside to continuing it. Um, Fraser Valley Arts is willing to do like a $5 discount for the National Theater Live. um performances which will be in the same winter period. Okay.

And um and if anything it's it's laying the groundwork again for more robust ridership. The the one thing I do think is a little wonky is even in the website here it says ski train. It's not the ski train though. Let's use the nomenclature that um is being used by the the people who run it or both. But let's let's at least um conform so that people can find us. What is it now? Uh, I just looked it up. It is the uh Winter Park Express, at least according to Amtrak, who operates it. And maybe we just use on that big headline train riders, right?

And then reference underneath that Winter Park Express. Yeah. Coming up on the Winter Park Express, something like that because we're promoting Frasier, right? And um Yeah, that makes sense. And I get that skiing. Totally. And I get that the colloquial nomenclature is ski train. So fine. Stay on there. The ski train is back on the winter. Oh, I didn't realize I was sharing my screen still. But yeah, so point that out. Yeah, it's right there in the top. I think there's an argument either way because yeah, I feel like everybody still calls it the ski train. Um, but again, if you're somebody who lives in Denver who moved here a year ago,

you don't know what ski train is. So, we should use at least make reference to both terms. Yes. Point taken. Yeah. There's trainers. Sarah, um Sarah mentioned that you have some comments and thoughts about what you're planning for this year.

Uh I mean, I guess it's all it's all dependent on what you guys want to do. I mean, the other Sarah and I this is confusing with us. Um, and just a real quick clarification, last year the way this worked is just it tells you to show your ticket. Um, and it could be any Amtrak ticket. We've also talked about, you know, if we want to do like busing or, you know, tickets as well. Um, and then you would get these discounts. So, it was a pretty bustle process. I think last year was kind of started too late in the game. Um,

so to me that was one of the issues. Um, and then so Sarah and I talked about ways to track this if we want to do some kind of digital thing. Like again, it's kind of what you guys want to do. I can find solutions for everything. We have tried like a actual um this was a few years ago was an actual physical passport where businesses provided a discount and then they would go around to the businesses and get like a stamp like an actual passport. um it just never took off because there were only four businesses. Nobody wanted to participate. They didn't want to offer a deal. Um it just ended up being kind of expensive and not effective. So um I don't know

passport or something like that. What have you looked at the cost of that or anything? Uh yeah, I mean it's anywhere between like an annual fee um depending on what you would want to do. Somewhere between two and 5,000. Okay. Um, but I don't know if it makes sense with a limited amount of businesses. So, I I don't know. There's I have a lot of thoughts, but I don't know if I want to get into the weeds. Would on this if somebody goes to open it, can you put a link to the business? That's what it is. That's what that red Okay. I thought Well, I tried to open it up and I didn't get a link. I would that but I just barely Yeah, it goes to whatever whether it be a website or

There you go. Okay, cool. So, it's in there. Great. With the address. I think since that's like a call to action, like, "Hey, check these out." Yeah. You're coming off the train. Like the Google Maps link would be more intuitive to me just because like you go through those links and there's a big like difference in those websites between them all. And like I just think telling like it's all you know brewing birdie lounge is probably the least clear there but massage distilling

mountain sports corn dog like it's coffee beer co it's very like you know what you're going there for so it's like all right beer $2 off take me there graphic of a map and it's like you're here and this is where all the other ones are something like that super simple because that way it's just like you know the person hitting this up doesn't know Frasier most likely and it's like all right I want beer I want whiskey I want food like perfect I like the I like the location better because then it's consistent and like like the images from the sign you made that we might put up there

for future discussion um but speaking of signs would we want to ask Amtrak to put a advertisement sign on the Amtrak's to say like as people walk off like hey like if you have a Amtrak ticket you get deals in town. Just treat it like parking and do it no one notices. Yeah.

Yeah. Like an A-frame sign last year and I think it was like fire and ice which was not it was dark you couldn't really see it. Um so I think we could easily throw that on the Amtrak platform. Um, and I believe if I'm remembering correctly, because we started this again pretty late and wanted to be able to add businesses, we kept it. It's like a QR code and it takes you to here. So, you can feed a list of businesses. So, cool. I think it's all still relevant. Yeah, if we could put that on the the platform,

our platform. We've tried to look if anybody uh has a connection into actually advertising on the ski train and have not been able to get a response back from anybody um about doing so. Um if we wanted to throw a little bit of money at it um Sarah, do you want to talk about the way you typically advertise stuff for the town and what kind of those price points are?

Uh it it really depends what it is. Um I I mean I prefer digital because I can track it, but like um I think for example like on the lift I think it was four different signs uh annual contract. I'm not doing it this year because I didn't see a lot of traction from it. Um it was $3,000 um on the buses. I I don't know what Amtrak is. I tried to get in contact with Winter Park Resort because apparently they're in they're the ones to um get in touch with after talking to Amtrak. Um they just don't respond. Um true on all levels we're not just No, it's not just you. It's not just you

with Winter Park Resort. Yeah. Contact me offline. I can absolutely help with that to have it today. Okay, great. Um, we don't see print print ads in like skyhigh. Those are crazy expensive. Um, and the only way that I'll do those is usually if I have a QR code to see if people are scanning them. I'll keep it real simple. So, you almost have to scan it. Um, I don't know. It sounds like getting them off the train with the I do like code and then social media. Well, and this is where the video would come in for the Google ad like the parks. the one you were talking about where she rides the train. Yeah.

We put that up on a Google ad. Um and then just blast it out to Yeah. And I'm not saying people it has to happen. I'm just saying that was an idea that there are influencers that do that. It is a good idea and it and it would be cool for Frraasier to get involved with the influencer realm since we're kind of getting trendy with it. I would like to discuss that more, you know. Yeah. We could maybe put that down on another agenda. Yeah. Yep. So, the short answer I'm gonna try to get that done soon.

So, the short answer is like it depends on what what you want to do. Like the Google ads and the digital ads, it's all about like how much do you want to spend and that's get a bigger reach that way. That's exactly what it is. I mean, it depends on the influencer you're working with. If they're Denver based, then it's going to be a lot cheaper. I just meant on a Google ad or like display ads, that kind of thing. the ones you see on the side. I see what you're saying. Or a YouTube those Google Yeah, Google ad would be not too bad. That'd be easy to come up with a budget for probably. Yeah. And you think we could tie both the influencer and the Google ad together? Um, so

this is what I I would just kind of keep them separate. Have the influencer do their thing and then create a video. Like it would it could be as simple as just like point of view footage of somebody's going onto the train and like maybe you're just showing their hands or something, you know, like the whole but keep it short. Um like I said, it's it doesn't have to be rocket science. No, they they usually do their own thing. You would just give them a bullet point of what you want if you ride the train, eat food here. No, I meant keeping the keeping it separate like the influencer marketing one and then the Google ad is like a different video. Okay, got it.

Yeah, if we can put that on the agenda to discuss the influencer for December. Yes. Um, anybody who has knowledge of influencers. Um, when do you want the Google ad thing? When would that be best used? I mean, I think ideally we'd be targeting the ski train starts in December. Um, so you'd want it done by then. Right now. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, great. Yeah, that's a good roughly. How about now?

That's I mean, in part, if we do an ad for the ski the ski ride save promotion, I see it as promote promoting Frasier, whether people use the actual promotion or not. Mhm. Um if that's something the GDA wants to put some money at. But yeah, we'd need to talk about what that looks like and figure that out pretty quick. Okay. Yeah. To maximize benefit. And then we're going to we're going to need one of us to volunteer for that, right?

Um well, we might Sarah we might be able to use Sarah and to try to put something together. Um that's what Sarah does for the town all the time. So, if we wanted to to throw a little money at that advertising um because Google Ads, what's kind of the range of what you pay? Depends on how far I want it to go. Um that's right. Yeah, totally. Uh I think I have one running now for like $20 a day. Yeah. So, really, it doesn't all get spent. It's kind of Yeah. clickbased. Mhm. Got it. And those aren't all videos, right? They sometimes just

I have a Yeah, I have a display ad going up right now. I used um a video for our find your flow for the summer stuff. Depends. Could you Is this too much to ask? Um if you could put just a quick budget proposal of what that would look like on the cheaper end for us for December. So if we want to go through, we can approve it and Cali can get started working on that. Awesome. Thank you. Great. Do we want to move on to the next? Yep.

No. Cool. All right. So, we have the come up conference series discussion. Um, this was originally an idea I just had due to the negative outlook on just coming up in this town to younger people. Um, kind of how to find their place, what it looks like to be able to, you know, buy and own a home or start a business. And then also just kind of the negative look on development. I wanted to kind of change that and kind of put a positive spin on that using people in the town that have made it with their own small businesses and kind of uh came from the lifty to a homeowner or um somebody that grew up here and became a real estate agent or um you know somebody like me that was kind of a ski bum, ski pro, didn't have a lot of money and and got involved with, you know, owning small businesses and uh making a name. I just thought that uh that would be cool for a conference idea, something that would be kind of once a month or uh once every other month and it would just kind of give the younger people in town somebody to uh look at their their testimony or their story and then give them some ideas to create their own way here. So on your I I don't know if everybody has one, but there's there's just kind of an outline I threw together here and I think it can be relatively low budget or free depending on who wants to get involved, right? Then I think that's kind of the idea is that we should be sharing our knowledge for free with the

younger community here. People that are working these 9 to5s and want to eventually work their way into living here permanently and not paying rent forever. Um or if they are they they're able to do it substantially and comfortably. Um, so I kind of put a mission statement on here. The Come-Up Conference empowers everyday citizens to build wealth, create opportunities, and strengthen community ties through real stories and practical strategies uh shared by local voices. We're redefining how our community talks about money and success, replacing limiting language with empowering uh terms that shift mindsets, inspire ownership, opportunity, and growth. Everybody knows that um your growth here kind of depends on your network quite a bit. So I think there's a lot to do with networking in here and um entrepreneurship. Uh, I don't know if I need to go over the entire outline here, but I think that some things that stick out to me personally are the um recognize opportunity uh pathways to your dreams. So saving money with a purpose, using investments to fuel your dreams, having a clear plan for why you're saving, you know, just little things that people forget on a daily basis. I know I have a lot of employees uh over the number of years that I've had a shop. I had 17 employees. So, uh, sometimes you look at those employees and there's like, you know, what they make and they're spending all their tips on beer and cigarettes or, um, just daily activities. And it's like then they complain about not having any money. And it's kind of like teaching

people to, you know, look for a clear vision for what they have and making things more of a goal. um that's more important than maybe everyday consumption or just what their habits are. So changing habits, changing language. Um and I think the language is huge. There's a lot of negative language here like and and people look at stuff and they say, "Oh, well nothing's affordable and nothing's obtainable." And um you know, they go all the way into, "Oh, I just have a job." and they don't look at things as a career opportunity. Um, I've had a lot of people work at the coffee shop that were saying, "Well, this is just a job for me." Well, I can tell you that that's your viewpoint and that's why you don't move up. You know, um, one of our girls has been working for us for 8 years and makes $80,000 a year working at a coffee shop. To me, that's a career, you know, especially for and she has she owns a horse and she has, you know, a home now and and that she owns and she has a lot of stuff just from hard work at a normal so-called job, but it's the way that she viewed it and talked to her employers and uh network to be able to create it into a career opportunity. And I think there's a lot of that here and just people just get stuck on like this isn't permanent. So, I'd like to look into how to change all that for people and just their viewpoints. There's a lot of people in this room that have made it here um and and probably moved here with very little money or came up in the community and found their their place. So, that's what this is all about.

Yeah, super supportive. Um I I do think this is it within our remitt um as a business community. Um when we have the center, I'd love to host it. Um and uh I did a very similar thing parks uh when I was head running HR for Veil Resorts because we we'd hear that from a lot of our employees and we ran thousands of units of housing and it was wildly successful. Um people were interested, they cared, they learned. Um and it became a nice social connection too. Yeah.

So I'd be happy to support it both personally and as a DDA. Is there um I'm totally supportive of it. I think it's a great idea. In the vein of um not creating uh additional work for someone's that's dealing with what's in front of them. Yeah. What's our uh requirement for monthly meetings here versus doing something like this in place of a meeting? Because I know like yes, our agendas will get full, but we kind of like anything. Yeah, spend the amount of time that's available to talk about stuff. We kind of fill it. So, yes, we do.

We have plenty of opportunity to drop know four meetings a year to get on a quarterly with something like this. I think would be great. And then just, you know, if we have a speaker or, you know, a couple people who kind of we give them the format of like what they should talk about or Yeah. to give their story. There doesn't need to be a format. I think that'd be awesome. Um, and then we could go, you know, do some in the public, go to a school for some, I don't know, whatever you were thinking for delivery. And I think it's a great idea though, but would be maybe more easily achieved if it's in place of a meeting that were

I think one of the challenges there is making sure that we have a quorum at the meetings if if we give um recognized people's other timeout. Well, that's why I'm saying if if it's if it's on top of these meetings like the trash cleanup day, you know, the turnout for that, I wasn't able to make it. You know, once it's outside of Yeah. you know, a few weeks out planned for me, it's tougher to make. Totally. So, if it's in place of one of these meetings and but still, if you're not here or I'm not here at the meeting or there's four or five people that are busy doing things out in the field and they don't make this, then we don't have a quorum. We get but we have aum for everyum for these things. Yeah. And we don't just discuss.

Well, and it's and it's, you know, instead of 9:00 a.m. the second Tuesday of December meeting here, we're meeting there. So, that's the expectation for the board members is, you know, everyone's still there. Sarah, yes, we do not need to hold monthly meetings. And I don't um I don't believe we need to meet every month. Um especially at this stage of the DDA. Um, as was alluded to, we always find plenty to talk about. Um, and I think managed to never finish in less than two hours, but um, we definitely don't need to meet every month. And I think it'd be appropriate to

so put something in there. And I think that that this this board and and is made up and everybody in the audience really if if a younger person were here, they'd want to ask every one of you questions about how you found your place in this community. And I think that that's the whole goal. I had some high school interns and they were really the ones that put me on it. I was like, "This is the age I really should be targeting so that by the time they get into um you know, everyday 9 to5 and they're out of they're out of high school, they're they're out of college, whatever, um they don't fall into that. They already know where they're going. They already have their network. They already, you know, have a clear-cut plan. um or when those plans fall through, they have a network to lean on. You know, that that didn't necessarily happen for me right away and I fell into things where I had to change my mindset completely and change my whole way of life and multiple times and this community will pick you up if you do that. But I think that everybody here is someone to ask ask questions to. So, we have a perfect board for that

and and people in the community within our network, some of whom are sitting right here as well. Yeah. And and one of the things I'd suggest is coming back to the social media conversation. Um we could feature a local person on a regular basis, whether it's monthly, quarterly, you name it, tell their story and use that as the thing that is a catalyst to your gatherings.

Yeah. Um, so you know, we have a monthly um, rose up person and then at the end of the quarter we say, "And if you'd like to learn more about how to achieve things like these individuals, we're having the following event." Um, and I think you've got a campaign there that is not hard to administer but also could have an impact and you're giving positive role models to the community and and it will bring interest to the DDA. Yeah. if we do it like that. That's a great idea, Greg. I like that. And I think some of the questions are in terms of attendance. Um, it sounds like it'd be easy for the DDA board members if we did it during this time slot in case, but it

it does that work for the public in terms of getting them in the door. Maybe the first one, right? And where do we do them? Do we want to do them at town hall and offer refreshments here or do we cycle around the different businesses? Um, I'm thinking more like a coffee shop. Something like that. Yeah, any Yeah. You know, on something like this, probably a cabin or a bar isn't really appropriate. Oh, yeah. I love the green church. The green church is being renovated. And sweet. Yeah.

And Meister again. So, I was just going to say I think the meeting flexibility can be a really good tool for you guys, especially if you have a purpose of wanting to get people out in a particular setting. Like one of the districts I work with is doing a we have a new business opening. So they're hosting their meeting at that business. Um and then followed by a happy hour that they're buying appetizers for. So they're supporting the business. They're getting people to come out socially and then they're getting their business done just ahead of that. So you can use different venues or times, locations to serve different purposes is, you know, just different tone could be useful. Yeah, I was thinking that as well. you like come to

that. Um I'm actually starting this up after meeting with Diane Butler. So I'm working on some networking resourcing groups at parks. I would volunteer and you put me on record. I would volunteer. I think one of the the for the networking side and I think you can have this run by a lot of this could be done by volunteers. I think that you don't need it necessarily have to have every member of the board attend every time or whatever, but I think this could be done with a person volunteering, right? So, like I would take on the the networking thing. I would host it. We'd have it at the coffee shop.

We char, you know, and we'd put that through the social media thing. Hey, with DDA is having a meeting here. we're, you know, and and maybe not have it be a speaker, but like this is where you find out who can do design work for you, right? Who can do cat CAM work for you? Who can do um who can be a mentor, right? Who can do X, who can do what? Um I think there's a huge opportunity for this across the county. Um and you I I would love to help in any way that I can. Okay.

Yeah. cuz I know like uh just a specific one since since Clark's here right now um I worked at the tubing hill a long time ago and in order to make a little extra money I started making um mug masks at the time. So they were just like bandanas folded in half with some fleece on it to keep people warm. And then what we did is Mike Miller was the manager at that time I think and I he saw these and he said we already carry these. We'd buy them from you. And so we would make a hundred to sell. And when that happened he said all of a sudden well we sell a lot of these. We need to buy 600 of these. And so I was still working at the same time. And that's the whole point of this is like you still have your job. You still work for whoever you're working for. But maybe you can support that in a different way or shovel snow on the side and you make this extra money and then you get that little chunk of money and you invest it into your dreams versus like, you know, going and partying or whatever, right? And like so that was one of my little come-ups and the only way that I had that opportunity was because I worked for the tubing for Clark at that time. So, you know, and and I think that that's sort of something that I would be sharing is something like that or you know, I know Ellie became a job.

That's right. It's not just a job. It's it's more than that. You can you can make something more than that. Ellie became a real estate agent and she would be a great testimony to the community, you know. Um there's a lot of people in this town that came from less and made more with the opportunities that they had. given that they worked with the people that they were around at that time. And a lot of it comes down to people just don't work with the people they're around at that time. They say, "This is my job. I get paid this much and I'm just going to take advantage of that and run the clock here in Frraasier as long as I can until I freeze to death and move." And that's not what we want.

Yeah. if we which I think we're all kind of on board of having these meetings. Um if we do have these conferences and let's say we do like we want to have the owner of Camber talk about how they opened up the business and everything and kind of offer some free cocktails or something like that afterwards. Obviously that's probably not an ideal location at 9:00 a.m. in the morning. So if we pushed it to the evening, if it is a DDA event, what are the requirements, you know, for the number of people, number of board uh members to be in attendance and like all of that kind of stuff like

I don't think there is any. We just need to post it and make it public if there's more than two people. Correct. If there's more than I'm gonna let antinet chime in here actually she's our bro on these things.

So I would post it on the DDA's page that you were have sponsoring an event. There may be two or more members of the DDA present for a meeting. And I think that you guys just need to make sure that you know who's going to be in attendance. It's not assuming that so and so will be there and then all a sudden nobody's there. Um but that that's easy enough. That's that's that's manageable. And then afterwards, do we need to publish anything minutes or anything like that? We just need to post basically, I mean obviously we would want to post it for advertisement, but basically we're saying that the DDA is having an event and there's there's a chance of

like when our board of trustees and there's more than two, we just post that board members are attending this event, there may be more than two people, okay? And that's it. What what we shouldn't do is at that event somebody says, "I've got a great idea. The DDA should sponsor something or other and the two people who are attending say, "Yeah, we're going to do that. We've made a decision." That would be Yeah. No, that's not what that's about.

Piggyback just a little bit um on what Park said that I think it's great if you guys can somehow include the high school students into these. I've raised my whole family here. My children are not going to follow in my husband and I's footsteps, but I'd like them to think what is a future that they could potentially have in Grand County. seeing the struggles that we've had all of our lives and how we've managed to raise ourselves up, but hearing it from other community members and seeing, you know, these kids and what is their future hair. I think that's

well and so that's originally why I got involved in the intern program up there. But I know that if we sent this to the intern program that they would probably bring their whole class here to one of our meetings if they could ask questions. if they have to listen to our banter back and forth about our agenda, it's probably not worth it. But I know that they would love to ask questions to everybody here. I had two two interns and I took them to meet Brandon one day and they love you. They call him, they text him, they and and you know, he's very smart with business. So like he gave them this great spiel one day that I I couldn't give him that. I gave him mine and then I was like, "Oh, well, you want to meet somebody new in business, meet this guy. you want to meet someone new, meet Nate. You want to meet someone else, meet Austin. And so that's kind of the idea where it came from is just like I feel like this is huge for the high school students, but it's also major for these guys that are like 21 through 30 and they're just they can't find their way in this community. And it's and they they need they need direction. And they all have questions. They just

they don't have a place to ask them. and they're at the bar hammered being like, "How do I do this?" And it's like, "No one's getting an answer there, you know." So, we need to give those places where where people can get those answers. And some people rise to the top and they figure it out, you know? Yeah. And I I'm not my wife without her permission, but I'm pretty confident uh she teaches the CNA class at the high school. So, she is doing this. She's preparing people for certification to go and work in the hospitals and the EMTs in our community. and she interacts with the entire gang every day. So, it would be an easy connection. That would be awesome. They need to figure out the venues. Yeah, the venues can be like I'm saying uh in different businesses

they can move around. Yeah. So, it sounds like there is wide support for this. Um, I think one of the questions is if the board wants to come up with a set kind of schedule and program for the year or if it feels like it makes more sense to take it one at a at a time as we go. Um, I see pros and cons of both approaches. that

well maybe we just start with one and make it more of like a Q&A type thing with the board that we have and then go to if it works we go to speakers you know and people that we bring on and say you are now going to talk with Ellie Souls or you know like whatever or you know and I think I think that that it can be as detailed or or as you know open forum as you want. And I just made this as something that literally anybody that wanted to be involved could pick up and read through it and be like, "Okay, well, I know how to speak to that, that, and that. This is what I did in these areas." And it's just really them saying it was it was kind of meant to be a speaker thing, but the Q&A is probably better.

I do I do like that idea for like the first uh conference because the majority of the board are small business owners, think everyone. Um, so I I think it would just be great for the community to also realize that the we're not politicians. Um, we are that's why we shouldn't have it here like a panel discussion or something.

Yeah. We can all introduce ourselves, talk about our business, how we grew that business, and kind of open it up to that. And then maybe even after that have a discussion with them like what would you guys like to see next time and then we can formulate our next conference. Um, but yeah, trying Maybe in the new year try to find um one of our monthly meetings to omit and have this conference somewhere.

Okay. Yeah. And I think it's just, you know, we have a developer on our board and I think that it's important for that to start kind of spreading in a positive light here so that we don't get held back too much. Um, it's going to be tough because we're a small town that, you know, but I think that, you know, being on this board helped me to see a lot of things and, um, just talking to Greg and being around being around you guys, I think that, uh, the community at large could slowly spread better language. So, and that language will then turn to, you know, more um I guess affirmations and manifestations for people. So,

cool. Yeah. Um maybe as a next step, um maybe Perks and Cali can connect and come up with a brief promo um and shoot for do you guys want to say once a quarter? So, personally, I'd suggest a small working group that comes up with a very specific plan that says, "Here's how we're going to do it." Yeah. Here's here's the timeline. Um, we we've done this with every single one of the events that we've created in this community. And until you can have something concrete and specific, it's really hard to get energy. So, I'd be happy to join the two of you. I can share a little bit about how we structured at a veil. Sure.

Um because I know that I know what didn't work there and I know what did and so I can share that and then we'll come back with that plan if that works for folks. That's great. And just logistically if it's more than two board members we have to post it as a public meeting. Um so two is a great number sometimes. Otherwise we can definitely post it or I could just provide that to the two of you and that way you don't have to. Well, not a board member like staff, right? Just in terms of Sure. So, if it's Parker Parks and Steve, that's great. But if more people want to be involved in a working group, we can do that. Um, we just have to post those as public meetings. I think Parks and Steve would be perfect. Is Park's got the passion. You did a great job writing this up and Steve's got the experience.

Yeah, it's just like weeks on end of jotting down ideas, right? Yeah. No, it's really That's where ideas come from. That's right. Okay, cool. Um, well, maybe we get together later and figure that out. Good time. And then Yeah, next few weeks. Yeah. Okay, cool. Perfect. Is there any uh other business? Let's future meetings, railroad station signage, DDA, TIFF projections. So, do we want to start with Well, I think these are items for future meetings, right? Yeah. So, these are good.

I will give one update on the railroad station sign that we've been discussing. Um, I did speak with Amtrak. Um, they are with the modifications they're doing. There was question about the visibility of the sign. Um, and that it's not an electrical shed. It's the shed where they actually keep the ADA lift is actually moving 400 ft north. So, I think that would provide that will provide for better visibility. Okay. Of the sign. Does everyone Do you want me to pull up the sign? Yeah, pull it up. Okay. That's just to the left of the shelter platform that Yeah. needs a heater that works.

Mhm.

But the shelter staying where it is. The shelter staying where it is. They're not doing any modifications. Um, interestingly, because I pointed out that some people have commented on the state of the current timbers maybe needing some love. Um, Hamre told me that this was put together as a collaboration with Winter Park Resort like 25 years ago and everybody involved is kind of long gone

and so there is not really any consistent maintenance. like Amtrak does the lights and the heaters, but nobody really has. I'm like, if we wanted to do something more with this, who do we I mean, we need to get permission from Union Pacific to hang the sign, which they've granted. Um, and we would have to do a real estate agreement with um Amtrak for the sign, which I've talked to them about, and once this board, if this board decides to move forward with it and approve it, they're ready to do. Um but yeah, there's nobody that really So let's step into the vacuum, be aggressive, tell them what we want to do. Yeah.

Take absence of a affirmation as permission and do it. So yeah, in terms of Sorry, this is being funky. One second. There's nothing like action to get people to respond or just let you go. All right. So, this is the sign that has been discussed and I know Katie, I think you brought up um at the board meeting seeing if we could add the elevation to it. Oh, I like it. Yeah. Duh. I think it's great.

But that uh that station is not changing. That is staying there. Old timbers and all. Amtrak's preference is actually that they hang the sign. Otherwise, we have to jump through some hoops in terms of liability and insurance, which I can ask about if we have it ready and want to do it sooner. But their contractor is supposed to be there in April

beginning the work on the ADA improvements. Um, and the ADA improvements will take time. Um, they I think the phases are over like three years because they keep the station open the whole time. But basically that is not moving. the platform itself is shifting north and then they're going to have a new ADA ramp. Um, but right now there is kind of a little shed that would block this on the other side. You can see it to the back there. That is what's moving 400 ft meters. So, um, I think that actually provides better visibility.

It's an elevator. Well, and one of the things we could do with the new one, with their permission, is include that in our mural program and decorate it. Oh, the show. Yeah. Oh, that's a great idea. Yep. Yeah. Um, was going to say the Amtrak sign will still be there. It does block it at a certain point, but I don't think it's prohibitive. Um, so Parker Parks I know is still working on getting a quote from his people. Um, we can bring that back in December. Yeah, it's going to be a lot cheaper than what we were going to spend. So that's uh then we can improve that if we like it. Yeah.

But it should be like a quarter of the price. So that will be good. Then in December, you'll have the new new sign with elevation on it for us to approve too. Um, yeah, I can see if we can throw the elevation on that. What that would look like. And do we want one or two want face it on both sides? So that's what we've talked about having on both sides. Both sides, right? Yeah. That especially if that shed's moving.

So in December, hopefully we'll look at the railroad station signs. Um Troy Bernberg has working has prepared I'm going to meet with him this week hopefully to go through some DDA uh tax increment projections for the future. Um and then Steve is looking to present on behalf of the Frasier Valley Arts um in terms of a proposal for future DDA contributions to the Frasier Center for the Creative Arts. Um, one other item that I meant to include for future meetings was if the DDA board wants to revisit an event sponsorship policy. This came up in part um it's one of the items on our work plan and when we looked at it last year, it was decided that we didn't have enough funding to to want to look at that at that time. Um, the film festival, the Winter Park Film Festival did present to the board of trustees to try to get the town to provide kind of a consistent sponsorship level um, apart from the donor advised funds, which is how they've gotten money from the town the last couple years. Um, and one of our board of trustees said, "This is what we have the DDA for." Um,

which isn't exactly true. It can be within the realm of the DDA and make sense. One issue with the film festival is that its main showings are outside of DDA boundaries um at the foundry, but I think having just an event sponsorship policy um and criteria for what events the DDA would look to sponsor and what that could look like um and again I do think it fits within the larger plan of development to sponsor quality events that are helping to activate and kind of increase that brand for for Frasier makes sense. But if it's outside of our boundary, right? Well, that that's where

there's more events is the thing is so then it just wouldn't be largely. But I don't I did not ask for that just on record. Yes. And Parks would recuse himself. Yeah. I don't from that discussion as will I and the FBA. Yeah. Vote. But that's just like advertising at the foundry for stuff that helps the district. So I don't see why there's any issue with it. Right.

Yeah. And I I spoke with Troy since he works with the stuff a lot to get his kind of thoughts and um I mean it's one of those things it's a gray area. You can justify sponsoring or putting money into things that are just outside the DDA boundary if there is an impact and you can show that kind of impact to the area within the boundaries. That said, I don't think it would make sense for the DDA to throw all its money at a film festival that's main showings or outside of the boundaries, you know, but if there's a promotion of Frasier. I think there's there's some room for that. Gives you good reason to move it to the art center when we build it.

That's right. That's right. I Well, I think personally I' I'd like to see more money going towards hard things like this sign, hard goods or, you know, Yeah. working on trails or stuff like that if we can do that. you know, right now I think it's cool to do whatever we can, but you know, in the future, I think that those, you know, tax incentives and stuff is is really and rebates are where it's at for development. I think that's kind of what we're here for. Yeah. And as you know to the other item on here the projections as our projections grow and we're you know in possession of some actual discretionary dollars

then having criteria around how we spend it I think are going to be really useful but that's still several years down the road. Totally. Yeah. Okay. Anything else on this other business? The only other business um that I'd like to suggest is just a slight improvement to the way in which we structure these meetings.

Um uh kind of to your your comment about how we talk things to death. Um as I look at today's agenda and I just went look back at a few um a lot of these things are just information. And so what I would suggest is for the discussion and possible action category, we divide that into items that are just information. Um so here's something that the DDA should know about with a time boundary on those 10, 15 minutes, something like that.

Yep. And then the items that are actually for discussion like um you know criteria for a event sponsorship would be an example and those are less time boxed less time bounded and that's where the real discussion takes place so that we're more economical with our use of time. I agree. I don't know how others feel about that. Great idea. That sounds good. I'm with that. More productive. Yeah. Cool. You okay? Yep. Oh, of course. Yeah. Cool. Anything else? We all good here? Managed to not allow two hours. Yeah, I know.

I do just want to say before you close it out, perks, um to thank you to the members of the public that joined us. Um there is coffee and pastries in there. So, feel free to grab some and partake if you have not already. Grab more. Yeah. Right. Um but thank you for coming. It's great to have input um so that the board is not operating in a vacuum in terms of of what we're focused on and so we appreciate your comments and presence. Okay. Anybody want to make a motion? I move we Yeah. Seconded. Okay. All in favor? I I Yes. Thank you again. Oops.

How about that? The one day I set up a meeting afterwards expecting to be going till 11. I