City Council - Regular Meeting

We're going to call the meeting to order at 5.31.

We have a roll call, please.

Board Member Ramsey-Corey?

Here.

Board Member Rosa-Gonzalez?

Here.

Board Member Rose-Robertson? Here. Board Member Nick Sahota? Not here. Board Member Karan Singh? Not here. Board member Mateo Vargas?

Here.

Board member Irene Vasquez?

Here.

Board chair Richard Braden? Here. And board member Isabel Vargas?

Not here.

We have established quorum.

Irene, could you lead us in the flag salute, please? Of course. All rise.

I pledge allegiance

Great.

Jose has mailed out the minutes from the June 29th meeting. I'll entertain a motion to approve.

I'll make a motion to approve the minutes as presented.

Motion. Second. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed?

No opposed. Motion carries. Motion carries. Motion from Ramza, second by Mateo. Correct. That is correct. Thank you.

Now is the opportunity for the citizens to address the commission on any items appearing on this agenda tonight. It'd be limited to five minutes. With none.

I think nobody on the call as well. So nobody? No.

Are there anybody on the call? No, there's currently nobody on the call. I'm sorry. So this is the regular business that any member in the audience can speak to anything that does not appear on this agenda at this time, limited to five minutes. I did. I did miss it. I'm sorry. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. We'll go back to the financials.

Yes, so what you see is not much of a difference from the last financial report we saw two weeks ago. As you see, we have the business license fees coming in, along with the bid assessment fees that are attached to those business license. Not much has changed. I think there's a few more. There's one more line of the beer garden expenses, the beer garden profits that we made. I think that's new. Other than that, it's pretty similar to what we saw two weeks ago.

So the ending balance at this point is 238,452.83? That looks like that's correct, yes. Questions on the financial report? Not all entertain a motion for approval.

I'll make a motion.

I'll second it.

A motion by Rose and a second by Ramza. All in favor by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries and passes. Thank you, Council Member. Okay, so at this point if there's no other comments from the audience, then we'll move on to the discussion items. The first one is the trashcan art program.

Absolutely. As part of the revitalization effort in downtown and also including the the arts and culture theme that we've incorporated downtown. This is a previous discussion we've had in previous years about implementing a downtown trash can art program that would include potentially a four panel trash can that we can include some art on. What you see are some examples of trash receptacles. The discussion here is to seek your board direction on the overall vision and the structure of what this program could look like. Before we move forward, I really want to get some feedback. Some of the things to talk about and think about is the preferred trash receptacle style and design. In your packet, you'll see three designs from a vendor that I found online that focuses on these type of trash cans. The other things to consider and talk about are the number of trash cans. potential locations of where you could see them being at. I know we initially talked about them being in the corners of some of the main streets. Do we want to allow artists to actually paint on the trash cans or do we want to do vinyl wraps to where we can incorporate other types of art, whether it's photography, digital art. We have the capacity of doing a vinyl wrap and wrapping those. We want to open it up to digital art, photography, kids' artworks in elementary schools. I want to get feedback on what you guys envision and get some of your inputs before I start drafting what this could look like. Do we have a theme? Do we want to focus around downtown Selma? Do we want to focus on Selma as a whole? Do we want to do it seasonal? It's holiday art time. So there's a lot of things to talk about there. So I'm looking for feedback on what this could potentially look like. And comments, I know a few of you are familiar with what downtown San Luis Obispo looks like. They have the same type of program. In the packet, I've also threw an application that's from the city of Manteca, I believe, that outlines what their program looks like. That's more focused towards a utility box. But we can borrow some of the language here if you guys are okay with it. But I really want to get your input. And we can start with the visuals of what the cans look like. And I'll bring it up for the audience right now. Let me scroll to the end of the packets. So this company that I found is called Secure. And they do a lot of trash cans. Sorry, where'd it go? So these trash cans are essentially meant for like advertising efforts, as you see the Century 21 on there. They do these advertisements and they send them to you. You just supply the logo. In this case, what I would work out with them is potentially just sending us the blank plates. And if we decided to do vinyl wrap, our public works department has the capacity to print vinyl wraps and place it over these metal plates. If we didn't want to do vinyl and allow just paint artists, then the paint artists would paint directly onto the metal, the white area that says Century 21. Yes. In speaking with Public Works, because I had a really lengthy meeting with them last week on a lot of different projects, they would prefer the vinyl wrap because they feel like it's easier to maintain. And if there happens to be graffiti on it, they can just get the stuff to wipe it off of the metal plates. But then again, we could allow some artists to paint on them directly if we needed to. It's just an idea of what's maintainable. The one we're looking at right now was preferred by Public Works because it contains the recycle and the trash aspects of it. But if we're looking for it to slim down and get something a little more affordable, we have these smaller ones here. Because we do have trash cans throughout the rest of the streets, this would just kind of be like a decorative corner trash can. and then we have a larger one here that's a 64 gallon and allows more artwork space what was the first one gallonage uh it was 272 gallons i think i believe so so it's recyclable and then trash um and in compliance with the upcoming ab um laws that they have to adhere to they preferred this um but again it depends on our our budget and what we're looking at and how we want to move forward with this. If we want to move forward with this, right now it's a discussion. So I opened it up to you guys to talk about can style, or I can continue to look for more. Really, this was the most, the most, the strongest vendor that offered this type of, these type of cans.

How many do we think we're going to need?

I think that's the conversation I want to have with you guys is like, how many would you feel we need? Do we need one on every main street corner? Do we need to, um, the vision was to put it and I'll look at the trying to sell me. They want me to pay for it already. Um, They the vision was to maybe have one or two on every corner. Like for instance, let's say McCall on high street where all the cars drive through potentially having two on that corner. Maybe where my vintage boutique is maybe having one on that corner. So I'm open to conversation of how many you feel like we would need in the downtown area. Mission.

I think what would be helpful is if we have that map that you had in the past with the location of all the bins, the existing trash bins, so we would know really how to position these.

I don't think I have it accessible right now. Forgot where that thing exists. It was in a previous packet. Yes. But I can actually just go to the downtown area if you want to look.

Number of trash bins we currently have in downtown adequate, like enough.

So from my understanding, the new trash cans that we placed out are nine of them and Public Works went out there with me and kind of laid them out and they felt like this was a good amount. We're keeping the ones that are the black metal frame along with the blue ones because some of them are still good. So we're keeping those out and active. The idea was to remove those rock ones. If you're familiar with the downtown, it's like the really rocky ones with the dome shape on the top. They were under direction to remove those because some of them are chipping away and they look really bad. So we're utilizing what we have still. We're just kind of bringing in the new ones into the fold. And we did a walkthrough and they said that this was pretty adequate of what we have.

And do you know how many gallons those were, those trash units? Which one? The ones that are already placed in position? I have to go back and check the document.

Because you said they felt that was sufficient, right? Yeah, they were happy with it because it contained both recycle and garbage. Garbage. Yeah, so we could take a look here.

The reason why I'm asking, because we don't want to end up with excessive number of trash cans where they feel they have to remove some existing ones just because we have too many.

Yeah.

Of the big money.

Yeah. I think the idea is a lot of them are outdated and they need to be taken out anyways. How many trash cans? I had the link somewhere in there. I think it was sent over here. We could talk about it right here. For instance, if we wanted to put one here... as people are driving into the downtown space.

On both corners.

But if we wanted to, just kind of opening up to what your guys' feedback is of where we should place these trash cans, or if you want to start off. So if you want to start off with an entry-level amount, like let's say we purchased five, and then we would decide where we want them placed first. That's kind of what I was hoping for. them on street corners we also would have to decide which corner there's four corners you know at an intersection yeah so we don't need four trash cans on all four corners we could do one on each corner and that's kind of the direction i'm asking for is one on front street and second street yeah one one across from one another there rams was trying to make the point of maybe having one there right yeah i think just the one would be

Well, I'm not imposing my opinion. I'm just thinking how many becomes too many. Like do we put catty corner from each other or is there a need for a trash can at the opposite corner or?

Well, that's the main entrance to downtown. Any place that would be my suggestion to put two as you're coming into downtown there and then spread the rest around.

Because, I mean, in the end, they're trash cans. They're not really a display of art.

Well, yeah, I mean, that was the goal, was for them to be art displays, too. Since we're the Cultural Arts Center, we wanted to kind of show off some of the art. So it does, it kind of ties in with what Mateo said last week of incorporating more art. I know this isn't a mural, but it's something that we can get community buy-in. So that's kind of part of... What's Milan high in front of the plaza right here.

Yeah.

So there are two trash cans here. We can put them So we don't have to think of it as replacing things. We can think of it as adding. Like if it doesn't exist there, we can add it. The idea is to maybe put it in a high traffic area to show that this is an art.

But we also want it to be where there's actually pedestrians. If you're near the art center, for example, there is going to be a lot of pedestrians there. If you are near the park, there's going to be a lot. Because pedestrians are the ones that are going to use the trash receptacles. If somebody is driving, they're not going to pull over just to throw trash in the trash bin, in a way.

That's what I'm thinking.

Yeah, so we want to think where there would be more pedestrians so there's use for them.

And I also want to invite the conversation to have them just not on high street as well. Like we really want to put them everywhere. Okay. Like whether it's, yeah, that's, that was the idea of having it on every corner. Well, not every corner, but as many corners as we can in the district. So that's not just on high street. So yeah.

You guys put that black one right there. That's really nice.

Yeah.

The black one. Maybe what you were saying, high, the boutique?

On that side.

Either on that side or by the parking lot.

That would be First Street and High Street.

Do we have a trash can at the parking lot area?

We put a new can in the parking lot area. We replaced, right in front of the parking lot, we put a new can right there. Okay. Yeah, but where my vintage boutique would be a great place to put another art can.

Yeah, on 2nd and that would be front where Rodolfo's and the other restaurants are.

Say it again, Ramza, where?

On 2nd Street near and front, I think, where Rodolfo's is.

Over here?

We could put it further in if we want people to see them when they're driving on 2nd Street, but I'm thinking... Right there. Yeah, right there, because people would be walking by maybe with food items, food wrappers in their hand.

Let's figure out where we're going to do this first, and then... Any other locations? Are we talking about three right now? So by the post office up here, this is where the post office is. North. So Nelson has a new trash can in front of their building. So, so north and high potentially. Yes. Okay. So right now we're at four cans. Did we want to put one down this way? Cause there seems to be a significant amount of, of foot traffic out here. Well, let's see, this is, um, There's a medical facility here. There is the computer store over here on this side. And then there's a Selma Pharmacy here. Bank of America is up here somewhere. I think it's right there.

On Logan and Aarons.

Logan and Aarons. Okay. Logan and Aarons. Okay.

Either like in front of the parking lot or the pharmacy on that corner or?

Let's go down to the street over here. Front Street and North Street. There is Grapewood Grill here. There's Cho's Kitchen. And then there is this parking lot where a lot of folks actually park here because it has a solar charger for vehicles too. I don't know if you guys envision anything being out here. There's currently no... I don't think there's any cans out here. I'm not too sure.

Yeah, that would be a good point. I mean, because of the parking lot.

First and Front Street. And this is just discussion. This is not an action item, so I'll have to bring it back. We'll confirm that I'll ask for a quote. And we have one, two, three, four, five, six, six potential cans that I'll reach out for. I'll get the quote on how much the can. Well, let's talk about what can we're looking at. There's the dual one. There's the smaller cans. And then there's the larger single can. I mean, I can continue to look, but it seemed like these were the best vendor to do this. I don't think so. I think they would have to purchase the correct size bags.

My question is the artists,

let's let's what can do we want first like let's focus on this first question yes are we wanting to keep the same can for every corner or are we mixing and matching open open to what you guys want if you feel like they should be the same exact can or they should be different in different places i'm open to what you guys would like i want to stay compliant with the requirements and we have to do the dual ones that was the discussion we had last time yeah and we opted for the dual receptacles

because we need recycling and trash. So I'm thinking.

So you're interested in the dual receptacles, the dual.

So. I don't know if there was an exact number, but it was having people having access to recyclables, recyclable drop. Yeah.

Whereas not so much about traffic.

The second one.

So the art center has a dual one, right? Yes. And then the rest of them having a potential single one. There's this one right here. So the other ones having a potential 36 gallon one. Yes.

I would still consider honestly, the dual ones if we are placing those near restaurants, because if somebody is walking in with drinks or something that they need to

I think we're going to post them on the corners away from the restaurants.

If on that street there are one or more restaurants and people are walking by, let's say, to the parking lot and they finish their drink, have a way of disposing of that bottle or cup or I don't know.

Right. Maybe just depending on where it's located and what's around it. That's fine.

That's true. So if it's, you're saying if it's closer to a restaurant or a parking lot, use the dual one, right? Yeah. And this is a discussion. It's not, we're not going to, there's no action. We're not going to ask for them right now. Parking and restaurant. Okay, cool. So it seems like we're pretty set on using the dual one and this one right here, right? The smaller one. Is that what we're set on? 36 gallon. Or do we want the bigger ones? I heard you guys say 36 gallons. $60.

Yeah, the difference doesn't seem that much. I would go with the bigger one.

$64? Only $100. Okay, great.

So 64 gallon and the dual...

The dual one just kind of strategically placed, which I'll present on a map.

I mean, the dual one would be nice everywhere. But I mean, if we're trying to be on a budget and save, then that's an option to do.

Once we get the prices, I guess maybe we could decide if we want all duals or sales ideas. Working lot areas and then the singles in the rest of the areas.

Great. So I'm going to move forward with Rose's question. When it comes to artists, how do we want to do this? Again, it's open to discussion. Do we want them to volunteer their time and their art or do we want to compensate them for their art? I would have to look into what that looks like, either grant or however we want to frame it. Do we want to open it up to all artists to do vinyl wraps on them, or do we want a mixture of vinyl wraps and paint? I'm just kind of leaving it up to you. You guys talk it out.

We would also need to look at it for approval, right? Okay, number one. And then if you guys don't want to go down that route, would it be advertisement like they're having there, or we're not going to do advertisement at all? So it'll be something. Okay, that was my other question.

So the idea was for us to be an art project in the community. Um, yes, it would be a process where they submit what they want to put and we would review it and we would say yes to this art. Um, let's move forward with it. So my question again is, do you want to do vinyl wrap? Do you want to do paint? Do we want to pay people? How is it that you guys want to move forward?

I think the mixed media would be cool. It gives a creative freedom. Um, As far as the payment part, I have no idea.

I think at first maybe we can propose if somebody want to advertise their art for free, it'll become known because we are giving them a free space to be creative. In exchange, they pay for their material in a way. I don't think we should pay somebody I'm very sure if we put it out there, there is going to be somebody who will be like, oh, yeah, I want my art displayed, you know, at a very busy corner in a way.

Are paying for the material if they decide to do like paint?

So there's that's the thing. Do we do we want to or do we want to just keep it exclusively vinyl to where we would still eat at the cost of buying the vinyl wrap and the ink? and public works is gonna is gonna use their printer to get the get the job done but those materials will still come out of our our budget to get those things done so if we want to omit paint because then we would have another expense of having to pay for paint and labor maybe we don't do that um if they do have a paint um a paint piece they want to submit maybe find a way to scan it yeah and then we would yeah so then the vinyl wrap leaves it open to to more more items just not doing paint and

I like the vinyl wrap idea. I think that's a good idea. We need to change what's there. And it's easier to clean too, I think.

It's easier to clean if someone graffitis it or something of that nature.

And then that's my next question. How often are we going to keep that there? So other artists say, let's just say we start getting a lot of people that say, I want to do that too. So are we going to leave it forever? What's the time period we will be leaving it on there for?

think we should review it if that issue happens like where we're starting to get other requests hey the more the merrier the more people are vested into decorating our downtown i think at that point we could say okay it's a minimum of a year but if we got somebody if we don't have anybody we leave it another year but if we do get somebody who wants to also display we have to be fair to other artists and then at that point it gets switched and i don't think they will mind especially if we are doing the vinyl wraps because it's not nothing is coming out of the artist's pocket except their time to submit their art right yeah so what then we could say we're gonna swap it and we're not gonna get a complaint because we paid for the vinyl wrap

Yeah, so what I'm hearing is using vinyl wraps, no physical paint. What I'm hearing is no compensation other than having your artwork displayed. And I also hear one year time frame that your art will be displayed on the cans. Is that right?

Unless we don't have another artist that want to, you know, we're not going to leave them bare either way.

Okay. If it's free, we should also make sure that they're not putting like advertisements in it.

Yeah, that's why we would review it. We are going to review it. Our body would be offensive. It has to be family friendly. It can't be, you know, just an ad.

I'll put like their like social. You can take the code and make it.

Well, I would like to have their name on their art, at least, of course. Yeah, I want the recognition for them.

They can have a name, not incorporating that stuff into the art, because, I don't know.

I mean, if it's advertising the artists themselves, that is okay. I'm just saying, as long as they don't, get paid by a certain business and say, Hey, would you paint my logo and my phone number on that trash can? Then we're going to say no. But if the artist had put their, their social media handle or something, I mean, that is okay. Cause that's the idea. We're trying to sell them the fact that, Hey, we're going to advertise your art. So people need to know where to find them if they.

Yeah, we'll flag that when we review the actual art. The last thing, I'm looking at the list of what else to discuss. The last thing is, what's the prompt? What do we tell them of how to submit the art? Does it have to be Selma related? Does it have to be Valley related? Does it have to be downtown related? Like we have to give some type of theme so that they can follow and they can submit a piece that they've already created already. Or if they took a photo already, they can submit that as well. I just want to give them some kind of prompt so that we know this is the, this is the criteria that we're looking for so that we can easily filter out art pieces. Yes.

I would say Selma and downtown related. Both are okay. We don't want to advertise for other cities. But if it's not downtown specifically related, but it's Selma related, that would be fine too.

Maybe like even like community based. Probably art based on connection or community. Got it.

So I'm hearing downtown related. What does the community mean to you? Showing some type of connection to the downtown or city of Salma space. What does that look like to you? What's your visual interpretation of these things, right? Okay. Got it. Is there any other comments on this art project? I think we went through the logistics, but is there any other comments on what that would look like from the board? I'm going to open up to the public. Yeah, if something comes up between now and then, shoot me an email. Between now and our next meeting, I'll hash it out to where it's a policy, and we'll be ready to go, and I'll come back with those quotes. Again, this is just discussion. Thank you for your guys' feedback. It really helps to move in a direction. That's all I have.

Thank you, Jose. Do you have any public comment on this matter?

So this is a great step forward. Just a basic question. Why change the trash receptacles? We already have them downtown. Why would we change the look, the trash cans? We already put downtown, like in front of Main Voyage. Why would the bid be deviating from that, the shapes of those trash cans? Can we not get those made again? Or are they not available? Or are they too expensive? So the trash cans, you're talking about the ones you currently have, right? Yeah, the ones downtown.

I'm sorry, which trash cans are you talking about?

Like the ones that are made in Voyage. The new ones that say downtown Selma on it.

Yeah. Yeah. So those trash cans are that particular style. What I just presented right now was us showing artistic trash cans. Like we talked about that in previous meetings of what we could potentially do. And it was to create more art and more engagement through the community. So it's a different style of trash can, but the trash cans we currently own, you can't wrap those. Those are not like, it's not artistic. So this is something we've discussed in the past. So it is a different trash can, but they're meant to be kind of art pieces at the same time. So. Got it. Okay. That sounds like a good rationale.

Earlier meetings having a mix of both styles just to highlight Selma downtown as an art district.

It's just those look so striking and they look great, you know, with the downtown Selma theme on it. And it's a nice addition to downtown. This will be a nice addition too. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

And I definitely want to, like you've mentioned in the past, Like, what does this look like? We're a cultural arts district. What does this look like? This isn't a way for it to incorporate that.

Okay, Jim Avalos, here we go. You know, the trashcan, you know, designs, I love it, guys. Innovation, I believe innovation. But also, I believe you want the town to pop on your trashcans and everything. You know, I have an idea. I'll throw it out there. These trash cans are nice. This particular trash can is very nice, set up. It's good. But what if you put the Sama logo on it, on these trash cans? You make them pop. You want to pop. And you want your community to pop downtown. And then you put above the Sama logo says, donated by downtown bid, downtown business. You get the credit for it. what you guys do you have the local on the existing i mean but it'll you know what i mean it'll stand out and on the bottom you'll put either one side will be recycled and plastic and bottom whatever it is next one is trash and paper but you want your you want your trashed to people that notice like hey come and look at selma they got uh the Selma emblem on these trash cans, you know, it's popping, you know what I mean? You want to stand out and say, okay, I'm glad to put my trash in here. So you think about what I said. Thank you. Thank you.

Della Ramirez, I'm a resident. Okay, get ready for this one. I was thinking, what if we have It would be a way to have our community come together and have our children from our different schools create something like a drawing, a handprint or something. And that way, when they go downtown for the Christmas parade or for an event, they say, oh, look, look, you know, that's mine. I drew that. And that would, I think, would really help.

have it pop out like just like an art contact yeah they would get excited they submit their and we decide which ones are good and we print them that's exactly that's exactly what the program is yeah so the idea is to open up to everybody so once we launch it we outreach with the district and say hey we have this great art program share it with your students um we funnel all the art here whether it's somebody who's in their 30s or 40s or somebody who's in elementary school we funnel it here and say, yes, let's, it will be this body's to like collaborate, like, oh, we want this here and this there. So yeah, 100%, we're going to get kids. And that's definitely, if you're familiar with how EEC used to display kids art on the wall, that's kind of the vision I'm going, I would like for this is for the kids to show their artwork on here too. But also I want folks that are experienced, like, let's say Andy, Andy, who's a great artist too, to have a great opportunity to display his art too. So I want to open it to a wide variety. So have a good mixture.

I think you said as well, like seasonal things or like when we have the parade going on or band festival, like certain events is when, you know, we can focus.

Right, for the July, Easter, all of them.

Yeah. All right.

Yeah, like in the bid just to, you know, go off of that is the bid would pay for whoever the kid wins to be in the parade, you know, really showcase that they really want to do this. Even if we just save one of them, that'll be... Give them a parade. Absolutely. Yeah.

Well, that actually made me think of another question. So if we were to go the route where we were wanting to switch it up more often or frequently than we intended to with certain events, would it be more expensive in that way doing vinyl every single time versus allowing the paint being more of the inexpensive option to switch out?

I think the vinyl would be the more costly and the more affordable routes. So let's say we take one holiday, the winter holiday, for instance. If we had panels that were dedicated to winter holidays and we switched them out, every year we could do that. That's something that we can incorporate. I agree. I think for the parade and things like that, we should have holiday-themed artwork on there too. But it's more affordable than actually them repainting it.

That's what I was curious about.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay, let's not forget that downtown history. It was designated as a cultural art center. And that's what it should be. To be a cultural I mean, whatever you're going to go on, whatever your decision, you need to make sure you do art. That was the original idea. you know, because it is a cultural arts and we have one of the most unique art center in the whole freaking area, you know, and then we start putting other stuff is going to take away from the actual cultural, because that is a cultural arts designation for that area. So, and this young lady over here, she had a great idea, you got to get different ages to participate. involve the whole community, because I mean, Andy's a great painter, but you don't want to get all these people that are really awesome and leave, you know, some little kid wants to do a little, wouldn't it be awesome to have your child's thing up there saying, hey, you know, um,

I think there will be room for everyone that double receptacles have about six panels and the single ones have four panels. So I'm sure we'll have.

Right. I'm just making sure that you do remember that when you're making your decision, because it's easy to get 10 people like Andy come from everywhere and do great, awesome work and say, okay, well, you know, we're going to push these kids because their work is not as good. And then to switch it, I think I'll leave it for at least a year. because I'm sure if I was a well-known a painter or whatever you call it, artists or whatever, I wouldn't want to put it on there for three months and then take it off. And, you know, and I'm going to say, well, forget that business. You know, it wasn't, it won't be worth their time. Thank you.

Thank you all for your comments. Hey, we're moving on to the holiday poll operations.

It's an agenda item here. So again in previous meetings we talked about the possibility of the bid purchasing some holiday decorations that have to do with the pole mounts that I believe there are some. They're pretty old and they've been around for a while. And we talked about what that looks like to get new holiday decor. In my search, there are many companies that do this, many price points all over the place. This is just one. I met this person at ICSC and I asked them to provide some quotes because I know we want to talk about what this looks like. And I'm just suggesting staff recommends is maybe doing a phased approach where if we do decide to move forward with purchasing pole decorations, I'm just throwing a number, whatever you buy, 10 or 15, and we alternate with what we have already. So it's more cost effective to incorporate, but also we don't have to stick to these. It's a discussion of what the costs are for this type of, this type of decor and, So if you looked at the bullet points where I'm asking for your consideration, is this a priority for us still? And that's what we want to discuss. The second thing is a phased approach. If we want to do it over multiple years, we buy 10 one year, we buy 10 another year. Potential funding priorities do we want to utilize any resources for this or I know there's a ice skating rink project in the works, so I don't know if that may require some of our funding to collaborate with parks and RECs that are doing that. Also, if we decide to move forward with like, do we, what area do we see it happening? And do we do it from second street to high street McCall street? Where are we placing these? And that's kind of what the discussion is, is how is this a priority for us? Do we want to allocate any type of funds for this project right now? And I'll go to the, I will go to the quote that was provided by the vendor. Sorry, it's going through. So again, this is called St. Nick's Christmas Lighting and Decor. They are based in Southern California, but they actually do decorations for Tachi Palace and some more elaborate setups. It seems like they focus primarily on installations that are like photo op friendly, like People do selfies in front of the family, like something you would see at River Park. But they also offer these light pole decorations. And in the packet, you're going to see a variety of different light poles and the cost that they provide. One of the things they seem to offer are used inventory, which I found interesting. Like, for instance, this gift box is a used light, and it's under $500. Snowflake as well. There are some more costly ones like this cool white snowflake. And they also offer more custom pieces. My request to him was, I'm interested in the things you have in inventory as opposed to having custom pieces, only because custom is more costly sometimes. So these are just examples of what a project like that would cost. And yeah. So I open it to discussion to you guys. Again, is this something we want to pursue? Do you want me to pursue these ones that we're seeing here at a discounted rate? Do you want me to look for more vendors? So just open it to you guys of what your vision is of this particular project.

I will start with, this is one thing I get constantly. They like to see the old ones replaced. Maybe like, maybe it won't be good. be able to do all of them like you're stating, but this is one thing I get told all the time. And it's been like the entire time I've been on here, what would it be considering maybe doing something new on the post like this? I'm glad to actually see that it's finally coming to the board for us for discussion. So hopefully we could start somewhere with these and make some of these people happy as well.

I'm all for making downtown festive and Christmas is my favorite holiday. My only concern, if we do the phase approach that it's going to dilute in a way. The new ones mixed with the old ones, and nobody is going to notice that we brought some new ones because if we. You know, if we bring just a handful in a way. And so my point is, I would rather have like we save enough to be able to make a difference, like a good dent and where it's obviously it is very obvious to everybody that, oh, wow, like this whole street got switched from the old decoration to the new decoration, then doing just five here, five there. And then no one notices that we're really there. And by the time we finish replacing all of them, everybody's like, well, these aren't new or like, oh, yeah. Yeah, I saw those last year in a way that that's kind of my concern. I mean, I definitely want our downtown to be as festive and as pretty during Christmas and the holiday season as all the other towns that have invested in this. I just don't know. how many we can do within our budget and not risk it, feel like no one noticed because there's still a bunch of old ones in a way. And as far as the used ones, I would ask what's the warranty on them? Like we don't want to spend 500 bucks and then use it for one year and have to throw it away.

Yeah, I could definitely ask the vendor what the warranty looks like. They're a pretty reputable vendor, and it seems like they're interested in having long-term relationships. So definitely I'll ask them on that, but I'll let you go ahead.

I think also, I wouldn't want to mix the old, but if we need to balance things out, it's how you balance things out. And if we're concerned about that. then we definitely start with all the corners, maybe all the corners. Those were pop regardless. Because when you're driving through the main drive-throughs, all the corners, the main, we got second and mill, we got first, depending on... Are they going to be able to be put there with the poll lights? I'm pretty sure they are. But we really want to start somewhere. The more we wait, the more, you know, and I get what you're saying. I think we just need to get a good quote on at least the corners for sure. And then, you know, decide... You know, I know there's a grant. And that's what I'm going to actually be putting on the next agenda. I want to know what's happening with one of the grants that's actually off $300,000. It's an allocation from in there to help us with the lights because that is actually for Second Street. So, so anyways, we just need to, to, you know, find a way to make it happen. And again, I would at least like to start with the corners.

Do we have a count of how many we would need to cover all of them? Like how many poles?

No, because this is the first discussion we're having. So it sounds like I can figure out which corners we're going to place them at, put them on a map and show them at the next meeting. So this, again, this is a discussion. I want to know what direction you guys want to go in. So the two things I'm hearing is if we have used one, asking them what their warranty looks like, and then also starting on the corners and using... the potentially new decorations on the corners to start with. Those are the two points I've gotten so far. Anybody else?

And get an account for how many more we would need so we would know what to budget for next year, let's say.

There's so many light poles in the downtown. Do you envision having a new decor on every single light pole? So that's what I'm asking you guys. Like, what is the vision? Because there's literally a light pole maybe every couple hundred feet. So that's why the suggestion was having some old ones on some poles, but having new ones on other poles, like spacing them out, not clustering them. My vision wasn't saying putting five on one street. My vision was to put maybe one new one, two or three old ones, one new one, just kind of, I'm just throwing ideas so that we can, however you guys envision it.

Yeah. Right now we don't know what we're looking at. Do we need $50,000 or do we need $10,000?

Now that I'm hearing that we only want on the corners, I could look at that. Is that what we want to do?

And you got to remember, we still have our tree walls that that'll pop a little bit with, with the ones in the corner. But I think my goal also is eventually to bring down, you know, the, the, the corners over by the post office, you know, we're, we, we need to, try to start bringing our bid people that are a little bit away from us, but are still in the bid. And that way they can start seeing certain things and say, Oh, wow, this is from the bid. You know, they're not forgetting about us. We want to start somehow including them as well. And if it's going to be some of the corners, that's what we need to shoot for.

Understood. So when you say corners, all corners of the entire bid district. Yes. That's how I interpret that. Okay.

Have a question is this would this be something that's already in our budget? Or are we allocating?

money for that so you guys have your financial statement um in the earlier packet and that's kind of where that's where we sit at as a as a as a board so you would delegate we want to say we want to spend ten thousand five thousand like you i'm leaving it up to you guys to tell me um is this a priority and it sounds like when i'm when i map it and come back with a final cost then you guys will make the decision of, yes, we want to do this or no, we want to scale down however direction you guys want to move in.

And then in regards to like Christmas holiday decorations, we have the trees from last year since the tree walls are like fixed up already. Are we still putting those in the downtown or what's going to happen with those trees?

That's open to what you guys want to do. If you want to use them again, if they're in good shape, we can use them again. Or if we wanted to look into other decorations to fill that space, we can do that as well. So. Open it up to you guys. The other most important part is out of these decorations, did you want me to inquire about a specific design with this business? Did you guys see anything you want?

Can you get a quote for both the discounted ones and the more expensive ones? Because obviously we know that the more expensive ones are like the more nice and modern. But I mean, getting two quotes would be nice.

And also the warranty of the used ones, just so we can compare.

So can you guys look at them and then tell me which ones you want me to ask about?

Are we required to get quotes from another vendor as well, or are we sticking to one vendor?

I would have to look into, it depends how much the cost is. I think, I think if it goes over a certain amount, we have to get three different bids. But the difference is that if this is the only company that offers this type of design, then we can, we can move forward with that because not every company is going to have the same thing. Right. Um, so, and if you want to, you want me to look into it more, I can look at more vendors. Um, again, this is just one of the many, um, But I can come back with a solid quote if you tell me which design that you want me to inquire about and how many.

And then I, too, think we need to kind of decide what look we're trying to go for. Yeah.

Some of these don't.

Yeah, like the present would have been really cute, but red and blue. I don't know about the red and blue. Yeah, I mean, I don't know.

That's more like 4th of July. Also, look how large that decoration is. That's 4 feet.

I love the height. I mean, how big it is.

Yeah, I like the candy canes.

Do you like it, the blue and red?

No, the candy canes.

If this was gold, we would have gone for it. Like red and gold, but not red and blue.

Yeah, that's just what I'm just saying. I like the golden white Christmas tree. The snowflake is cute.

It's What colors do we currently have right now on the decor?

You're right. It should.

So this is this looks like I believe the current decorations we have are garland and like that old the old type of garland and the lights are like a like a warm light. I don't they're not I don't believe they're multicolored. It's wrapped. But then there's also this cloth banner that says season greetings that hangs out from the pole. Is that Red, red and white. It's a red banner.

Does it have white in it? I think white.

It does season ingredients in white. And it has the business at the bottom. And those are owned by Public Works, and they put them out every season. But they're not opposed to us adding to their decorations.

You got to remember, those came from the business owners that paid for their business name. They have the business name, right?

I have to double check on that. So I used to think they were from the chamber, but my understanding is the chamber has nothing to do with those. That public works prompted those.

We paid through the chamber.

They said that they don't own those anymore.

They bypassed them too. That's probably what happened.

On the season greeting sign, does it have bells, Christmas trees on them? Or is it just the words?

They have a picture.

I can't recall. I can't recall.

You take a picture, too, sometimes, season greetings.

Is our first place online for our downtown during holiday season?

No.

You look up something right now?

I don't think so. I do take one all the time, but it's not coming to me.

Now, I have thousands, so it would take me forever to scroll. Last questions.

Let's see.

But I guess first thing, we'd have to pick a color theme and stick to that throughout. Because if we don't have a theme, I guess we're done.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. If we already have red, what's going to go well with that color? Personally, I like the two half Christmas trees. Those either aura would be fine or the half snowflakes as well.

Give me one second. I have it on the screen. Are you talking about this one right here?

Yeah. So that one and the one above it, I think would do well.

and then the half snowflakes i think we would be wasting a lot of money on custom honestly even though they are pretty but those are custom and for that price we can have two of the inventory ones and if there's a way to find a seven foot something is new inventory the only two items you gave us that's all what they have the stocking and the candy cane yeah that's what he provided me um

Yeah, those are the two that you provided me. This is as of last Friday. So that's why I was surprised that they had used inventory. And in my opinion, I think that's a great price point. And I'm saying this doesn't have to be the end all be all. We could purchase three of these and then maybe three of.

Well, the white snowflake for the used inventory is not bad as well. As far better than the other ones.

candy cane is a cool way can you go up further please to the new ones that were right there so if we are um no just the one below it below the stocking so that candy cane can we mix them with I don't know. That looks horrible.

I don't like it.

I think since they're coming from the same vendor, all the lights temperatures are going to be the same. I don't think that's a big issue. I think if we were to use different vendors, that's where we run into styles being different. I feel like their style is going to be pretty consistent as far as like build wise and quality. So I don't think that that's big issue to see it.

If we could see it lit in front of us, it just, maybe it's just the picture, you know,

Yeah, I don't know. I worry that if we opt for the custom ones, we're not going to be able to do too many because of the price point.

Yeah, that's really going to be cool. I think, too, because the styles are different, like the candy cane ones and the present ones, those are kind of more like of a cartoony, Christmassy theme versus the more clean, modern look. So I guess it just depends on what we're trying to go for.

And how much we want to spend.

Yeah.

I think that's going to be the most important.

Well, right now, I just want to know what, if either of these, like you like these, and that way they'll provide us a quote once we move forward. So Irene makes a very good point. Do you want this to look fun, festive, childlike which is not bad childlike vibe or do you want to be clean single color yellow river park energy like what is it that you guys want to go for that's what you're that's the discussion here now i think if we're mixing it with the ones that we already have i think the the snowflake the clean like classy look looks that's the one i like too um the four foot snowflake the gold one right you're talking about yeah that'll go with the red the gold but

And you said that what we have already are warm lights. That one, right? That one and the half Christmas tree that Irene pointed out. The Christmas one, yeah.

Give me one second. So this half snowflake warm white, you guys are interested in this one? Warm because it's the warm. Of course, yeah. I think that's a good idea. And then can you go over that second one again? It was the half Christmas tree? Yeah, I'm further. Sorry.

Do we want to mix two styles or do we want to just pick one classic clean and make it throughout?

But that doesn't have any red in there. It just has, it has, is that blue? Baby blue? It's hard to tell on the screen. Is it green? Am I colorblind?

I'm trying to stay clean. I would stick with the half snowflake. That's it.

So this is the same as gold and silver. This top Christmas tree is gold and silver. And this one is all green and silver.

Gold and silver, yes.

So are we saying this one too? Is that what we're saying?

No, no.

Okay.

I don't know.

It doesn't happen as elegant as the cleans half snowflake. That's what we want to go for.

And I think it just will be cheaper to put maybe those colors in our, like make something in our tree walls to like what you guys are talking about, but to go with the red gold and that would be way cheaper. But at least we'll have a lot of our corners, you know, the corners where it's more expensive.

And your garland, if you want to add a color to your garland as well. Because is it going to be just the light with the garland wrapped as well?

I don't know if those two are separate. I don't know if the garland is separate or if it's attached to their decoration. That's a public works.

But we don't add, like if we were to have that, we wouldn't add a garland to it.

We could potentially could, you can add that if you wanted to add it. Yeah.

It just, it just depends.

Um, that this, this looks very, very nice.

Just, you know, clean, um, Stands out, half snowflake, warm color. Okay. I mean, but we can look at everything.

As of right now, I have that one as a consensus to look into. I can ask them how many they have in inventory and get a quote on it. That's a starting point. So nothing else in this booklet? We're good with this one? Sorry, what was that?

They're on the lights that we used to have downtown.

So I took a picture and I sent it to him and he made the mock-up using AI to show what it looks like. So that's a picture I sent him. That's something that's public works.

Do you like that?

It looks nice like that. I was just saying because when we buy them, I don't know if we're trying to buy them to put them on. The current light. I get a good point. We're actually going to switch the light.

I don't know how far we are from that project of getting entirely new lights. You know what?

I think you're right on the white, like a white color. The new lights are white LEDs. Yeah.

I need that.

That's that's like, do we want to wait until we get new lights to get decorations or do we want to move forward?

I mean, we can move forward, but move forward with the new lights in mind because these are the ones that are going to be around for.

Okay, so I have consensus to ask, oh, we're not using any used one. We're going to look into this custom build to see what he can do. Maybe we start on the corners and get a number of how many we need. And then I'll ask for a quote on the warm half snowflake that we're seeing right here. That's correct. Cool. cool white and the warm white yeah it's going to be the same the other same price it'll be the same price okay so i i have a little bit of direction moving forward on on one light so we'll start that we'll use that as a starting point but again this is a discussion no action item needed yes any uh comment from the public

robertson i think whatever you guys decided is going to be really good we it's time it's time to do this so you know i'm looking at the word you know you're arguing about details that's good that's your job but i think overall the picture of downtown is really going to look good i mean look at what those trash cans did look at the tree wells that's going to really start to complete that picture of our of our downtown district so uh good job that looks really good thank you thank you

Next item, talk about the fall decorations, I guess, is what we're going to discuss. Action item, right? Or where are we at?

I'm sorry. No, I'm sorry. It's the last time on the fall decor. Oh, OK. Sorry. Jumped ahead. More decoration talk. You guys know how I love it.

I am not a decorator.

Okay, so now is the time to start thinking about what we're going to do for fall, whether it's Halloween based or fall. There was some ideas in there. I had a hard time finding general fall ideas. you know, Halloween themed decorations. Everything's like gory, zombies, and it's like, that's not the vibe we're trying to give. We want to give like a professional, like clean look. Attaches are some items I found, but I'm open to other things. The discussion is to figure out what we want to do with the eight tree wells for the fall slash Halloween season for those who celebrate. So I'm open to discussion on what we want to do there since we're a little bit ahead of the game because there's nothing between now and Halloween. So we can talk about what you guys want to do there. Again, if you have a decorating eye and you want to put two pieces together, we could do that. But I'm looking for a discussion on what you guys would like to do there. And then I could bring a quote for the next meeting and finalize what that cost would be.

Personally, I think if we did a fall theme instead of a Halloween theme, it can take us from beginning of fall all the way through Thanksgiving. If you're doing only Halloween, it's two weeks in October, let's say, or something. And then we would have to look at other options. So if we stay away from... halloween stuff like even the jack-o'-lanterns or whatever it is halloween like no ghosts no gory nothing and we do simply pumpkins and scarecrows and yeah um that would be better because like i said we can put them in september like second half of september and then we won't have to worry about them until after thanksgiving which at that point we decorate for christmas i know that um

Are we opposed to doing real pumpkins?

That's exactly what I was about to say. Have you seen like how pumpkins, that's just, that's kind of like the new trend that people are buying a ton of these like organic pumpkins, whether they're like, exactly like in different shades and they're placing them on like hay barrels. And like, it's, I know exactly what you're talking about. I feel like that'd be a great look. I just don't like, we need like a designer.

Do you know if they're great? They last a while, but, I mean, they do spoil. So you have to what? Some DIY packs.

Like a clear coat or whatever? A clear coat that you spray is not like paint. Yeah, yeah. It lasts like maybe a month.

Yeah, it's 60 days pretty much that we're looking at.

yeah that's exactly what so something i'm not saying this is a doorstep obviously but on the screen you see the mix and match of different types of squashes and pumpkins um again they last dear okay they do last a good long time okay i think my pumpkins last my i put them on my house they lasted till like january

With that, do you know anybody who does these type of things? Does anybody know any type of decorator person, influencer that does this type of thing?

He was advertising a lot because it's not fall right now so hopefully he'll come back. I'll see if I can find his name again and I'll shoot it to you. He brings it in his truck and sets it all up but depending on where we want him to.

We're talking about the eight tree wells, right?

Yeah, we're talking about the eight tree wells for now. So it sounds like we want to incorporate some type of real pumpkin, no matter what we do. Real pumpkins.

It would be nice to put a hay bale or like a little barrel into each one and a bunch of natural pumpkins around it. Corn stalks.

Corn stalks. Corn stalks.

This is good. This is really good. I'm getting pieces of maybe a hay bale, corn stalks, real pumpkins. It helps me. So we're getting away from like holiday, Halloween lights and more in like the fall.

Harvest. We might want to ask like the FFA programs because they do. I remember we did... We did like setups at the fair. I don't know if you guys ever go into like the exhibits, but we would go set up an entire exhibit for, you know, whatever theme it was that year. So like they, the floral teacher is usually pretty good with like doing all the design kind of work. There's a floral teacher at FFA? Not exactly the setup right now, but there's usually a floral teacher, floral design teacher, the head ag advisor, and then a shop teacher. I know the teacher just got hired and the other one.

That's good information. It'd be great to collaborate with them. Of course, it's always good to have some unified partner with us. I mean, if you guys are okay with that, I get clear direction of where, what direction we want to move in. I could reach out to some people to see if what it's hard to get a quote on pumpkins right now, because we don't, I mean, they're not in season. Maybe I could find, do you have a number?

I always call Vossler Farms. That dude has them here. Vossler Farms in Visalia? I have his phone number.

Are we allowed to post maybe something on our page saying we are looking for this and that, like on the bed and see if any of our followers have any connection?

We can ask. We can ask if we know any decorators or designers, I guess.

Or like pumpkin suppliers or a builder

sorry farmers a farms okay other questions about that that item so nix all these and we'll just move forward with getting real um pumpkins and a harvest theme yep i think it's a great direction it's going to last longer anything else on that

going with any kind of lights for the tree walls besides just the pumpkins i mean like we normally do something fall if we see some fall lights like i i found all the red white and blue lights that i added in um Tabitha, theirs weren't working, so they just replaced them. You can't even tell. They match.

We can add string lights, like you said. Kind of string it around.

Fall lights, maybe. Yeah, just something that I'll look to.

public comment. comments from the public. To move on to action items for tonight. And this is the bench replacements that we've discussed before in the past.

Yes, so we mentioned we talked in the past about along with the trash cans, replacing the benches as well. Some of the benches are currently falling apart. We talked about that item. We discussed replacing the benches as part of the beautification process. So I requested a quote from Kings River Casting. It's the same vendor that did our trash cans. They're the ones who actually designed the benches we currently have in place right now. So our public works department is familiar with them. We have tools and the pieces to work with them. You're seeing a quote for $1,669 per bench. That's how much the one bench that we kind of talked about in the past moving forward with. And there is an image of it on the back of your packet. And I can call it up on the screen for everybody. This is the style that we mentioned before, but we don't have to stick to that. If you want to move on with a different one, this is their bench. It's a Kings River casting bench. And the vendor told me that he is able to put an arm right here if needed. Our current benches have an arm there. So this is something that he's able to do that increase the cost. As far as I know, because I asked for a quote with the bar, and that's what he told me. So it's the same cost per bench. So this is the current vendor that we work with that does our trash cans. If we want to expand beyond that, if we want to keep moving forward, there are other online vendors. Here's a similar style of bench. And there's a little more decor, a little bit more to it, or just a little bit more money. And then there's this one as well, which has the arched back, but it has a very similar style. I do not know if they offer the arm in the middle. This is something I would have to reach out to them about. But again, we always try to buy local and support our local vendors. With that, this bench is the one we talked about in the past, but there's a book on the table that offers other benches that they offer, including... The style that we currently have, but they offer a plastic version of it to where we're not replacing wood parts. So that's something to take into consideration also The action is if we move forward with that type of a bench at 11 benches. I can place the order. Now I have a great relationship with them. They said six to nine weeks, they will get them out here. We want to take our time and then revisit what the benches look like the catalogs on the table. And I don't mind reaching out for a different type of quote. They're a great vendor. They're very accessible and they work with us. The other item I want to talk about was the potential of 11 benches. And the reason it's 11 benches is because I walked through the downtown area and I was only able to see... the existing benches. You'll see them located right there. Those are the benches that I found. Right now, we currently have seven benches. So we can move forward with replacing just the seven we have, or as you guys have discussed in the past, we can start adding benches if we needed to. Other places to potentially add them are in front of eateries where people are potentially waiting. If they ever have to wait to get a table or wait for an item, the benches might help them stay longer. Other places is the dance studio, the ballet dance studio, or the folklorical studio and placing the bench out there where families are waiting for their kids to get out of practice. The same with the other side of the wrestling studio. So these are just options. If we wanted to add three more benches, we can strategically place them in the downtown area. So I want to open up to discussion of what you guys thought about, The proposed benches. If we want to move forward with what we talked about, or do we want to get a different model? And do we want seven benches or do we want 11 benches?

My first thought was, what about ones that incorporate artwork on it? But those are they would be totally different from the ones that they make. i just keep thinking of like bus stop ones and like movies where they have like a huge advertisement on it but like instead of advertisement but uh leave spots for artwork but i just don't know if that exists to be honest

And again, we want to think about what our aesthetic looks like in the downtown area. Like Irene mentioned, um, the type of bench also adds to like what type of fill we want. It matches the trash cans. And they match the trash cans. So, um, again, I'm open to discussion of what your guys' vision is to.

Did they tell you the normal life of a bench like this?

Um, no, they didn't mention how long these would potentially last. I would assume they would last longer because they're not wood. Um, Public Works did share with me that they prefer the style that I showed you guys as opposed to the style we currently have, which has the wood planks. Because pieces break, people carve into them. There's a lot of replacement that happens. In my opinion, they're not as visually aesthetic, the ones we currently have. are essentially what Disneyland uses in Tokyo because that's one of his partnerships. He makes the benches for them in Tokyo. So it gives us that downtown, hometown feel that we currently have. Public Works has expressed that they're hard to maintain.

Are these new ones powder coated?

Yes, they match the trash cans.

Do they have a warranty on them in case of, like, I don't know, scratchy and rust, whatever. How do we touch up? Because once you powder coat, it's not a simple gray can of paint over it.

That's something I'd have to definitely ask Public Works about. I don't know if there's a warranty with these. As far as I know, Public Works maintains them after they're delivered. But I can get clarity on that for sure, what that potentially looks like.

And to me, as long as they have the arm in the middle, it's fine. Because we want to avoid people sleeping on them overnight.

I can ask. I mean, he has said that he can make an arm on that chair. On this bench. Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, anything we can do to avoid people carving in them because they still... I go places and I see...