City Council - Regular Meeting

Check, check.

Everything works? Okay. All right. 5.30. So I'm going to call the meeting to order. Do we have a roll call, please? Yes, one second.

All right. Board Member Ramzacori? Board Member Rosa Gonzalez?

Here.

Board Member Rose Robertson?

Here.

Board Member Nick Zahota?

Here.

Board Member Karan Singh? Not here. Board Member Mateo Rodriguez?

Here.

Board Member Irene Vasquez? Not present. Board Chair Richard Braden? Here. Board Member Isabel Vargas?

Not here. Not here. We have established quorum, though. Rose, will you lead us in the flag salute this evening?

The minutes were emailed out to us Friday.

And I in a motion to approve the minutes from the board meeting of August 17th.

Make a motion to approve the minutes with a motion by Rose.

second by Nick. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Motion carries. Financial report.

Yes, if you look at the back of your packet, you will see the financial report that's run monthly from the finance department that shows our account summary. It shows what our balance is, but also there's an in-detail report. budget summary, detail versus budget report in the back. And as you'll see, I'm happy to report that the continuous audit of downtown businesses and the bid assessment fee is ongoing. So you're going to start to see more and more businesses pay into that fee that may have not been assessed in the past. So that's what you're seeing on this spreadsheet here in the past couple of months. This has been a collaborative effort with myself, Jessica and finance and our code enforcement team to ensure that everybody has the proper licenses and has been paying the proper fees. It's an ongoing effort, but it's really ramped up in the past month, as you could tell with a few of these licenses coming in now. And I have finance manager Heather Bonilla here to answer any questions if you have. any in-depth questions.

Good to see that that's coming in with the collaboration of you guys doing that. So that's very positive. This also Well, 681 86106 doesn't include the additional 100 for the grant, correct? Right. Thank you.

That's correct.

Any other questions?

How much is the balance right now? Will we have right now? 86106.

86106 is our current balance.

If there's no one that any other questions I make a motion to approve the financials.

Motion rose to have a second.

A second.

The seconds call for the vote on favor say aye aye any opposed motion carries. Hey, this is the time that the public could. Have comments or citizens can address the Commission on any issue that appears on the agenda this evening. Time would be limited to 5 minutes.

I see no hands raised in the chat as well.

There is a hand race. No answers, OK, great, so we'll move on to. Notice to the public, members of the audience may speak out to any other items that are not appearing on the agenda tonight. That also would be allowed to five minutes.

No hands raised in the chat as well.

All right. So we'll move on to discussion items we have coming up.

We have no discussion items on this agenda. We have three action items.

So we'll move into the action items at this point. Ice ring sponsorship.

As you can tell by our agenda, it's a very festive time in downtown Selma. with one of the flagship entities being the ice rink that's coming to downtown. I believe last meeting, acting director Tiger laid this out and presented what the plans were, and now it's official. The contract is now signed. He's here with a short presentation of what this entails and what a possible partnership looks like on the downtown Selma Bids behalf, and I will call up a slideshow right now.

Just to give a little history on the slideshow, when I first came last meeting, there was a lot of questions about what it would look like, what kind of the logistics of it. And so that's kind of what we brought back for you guys today is now that we have an established game plan, have the contract signed, we have more details and things to share with you guys. Boxes on screen. All right. So with the Solid Holiday Magic, it's a new holiday tradition that's beginning here in Selma. And so what that looks like is a skating rink on Mill Street with a whole event around it in the park supporting a holiday magical themed ice skating rink. So the ice skating rink isn't going to be the only attraction there. It's just going to be another way to draw more people into a holiday festivity event featuring vendors in the park, different booths, different festive crafts. um, visits from Santa visits from the Grinch, um, different activities like that to go along with the ice skating rink. So it's not just skating. It's a whole experience. It's a whole, um, community event that goes on for a while, which is something, um, that's really exciting for Selma. Right. And it's something that, um, families are always looking for something to do. We always hear about them traveling. And so now people can travel to us, to our town and, uh, experience this holiday village, this magic kind of setting that we're setting up for downtown Selma and for Selma itself. And so with that, it'll take place December 5th through the 20th of 2026. So that'll be the day, the first weekend in December to the last weekend before Christmas. And so we extended it all the way to that extra Sunday. And so we'll finish that last weekend before it really gets into the holiday family time. And it's going to be taking place on Mill Street. So we did pivot a little bit with the library planning on opening by December. We pivoted it. And so we're moving it down to Mill Street. And so right here, you can kind of see what the game plan is as far as the setup So the skating rink will go right here on Mill Street with the skate rental area being towards the Veterans Plaza near where the Christmas tree and Santa's workshop will be. And so that kind of creates that entryway into that ice rink into our holiday area. area with a nice little route right downtown to get to our high street as well. And so with that, our game plan would be to have some vendors lined up on Selma Street as well, and then some pop-ups in the park with different activities depending on the day, utilizing different theme nights, partnering with the schools, different ideas.

On to the next one, Jose.

And so then we've attached a video just to kind of show you guys what it's going to look like. And so that video right there was just to kind of give it a glimpse of what we're going to have. Obviously, we've never had this event before. And so those are other ice rinks from the company that we're going through, Ice America. And so it gives it a realistic look of what we'll be getting and what will be on Mill Street. And then why the downtown Selma bid should be a founding partner. Selma already draws a crowd. We have a real foot traffic during business hours. It's timed to one of the biggest shopping weeks of the year, Christmas right around the corner. It's built for cross-promotion with the entrance from High Street coming down to the Veterans Plaza where all our Christmas decorations are. And then it's a partnership. So we really want this to be an event that the city itself is putting on all the entities together coming as a group to provide something for the whole community. It's just a really unique opportunity for all the entities to come together of the city of Selma and provide something really great for the residents. And then for the presented by downtown Selma, 25,000 founding partner, that includes the North star sponsor benefits, which would be the best ring board placement, speaking opportunities at ceremonies, media coverage, inclusion, 20 complimentary tickets. Plus as downtown's founding partner, you'd be a founding downtown partner recognition, a shop and skate program, bulk promotional tickets for bid members and shared shop downtown Selma rink signage. Thank you guys. If you guys have any questions, I'm right here willing to answer.

The center parade that goes on the Mill Street too, is that going to affect?

Yeah, so we're going to be working with the chamber on editing that route to make it, yeah.

And I just want to add a little more context to this slide right here from the staff. We're already pulling 1.3 million out-of-market visitors, and that's from the surrounding areas. I think it's Kingsburg, Parlier, Reedley. Those people are coming already here already every year. So we know we have the traffic. Now we just have to direct that traffic to the downtown space, which the downtown businesses would essentially benefit either by purchases or either by brand recognition. If you have a business that doesn't sell a tangible product, having your logo, your real estate agency logo is brand recognition. So I think that's what we meant by we're already drawing a crowd there. The second thing I want to mention is the amount of skate sessions. It's over 16 days. That's correct, Matthew. It's over 16 days, multiple sessions throughout the day. So multiple visitors, multiple times. It's not just the one. It's not an ongoing thing. There's continuously new traffic. And that's the goal is to have families sign up per skate session. And like you said, it's the biggest time of the year. People are already coming down. People are already shopping. They have shopping on the mind. If they're in the downtown space, hopefully they would go shopping and look for those Christmas gifts that everybody's buying for at that time. Cross promotion, there's opportunities for like date night, dinner and skate night, shopping nights, some kind of collaborative effort with the downtown businesses. And yeah, I just wanted to add some more context to the amount of traffic that could potentially be in the downtown space.

Personally, I love the idea, so I'm all for it.

Is the Christmas parade, what date? December 5th.

Yeah.

Trying to kind of coincide those to make it even bigger event, already get the crowd from the normal Santa parade and adding in more festivities with it. I believe, would it be open? On weekends, 10 p.m. Weekdays, we're still kind of working, but we're thinking 9 p.m.

I mean, what a great opportunity for families to make some nice memories here without having to travel anywhere and having that long span of time that they can, if they're busy one weekend, they have the other weekend or weeknights and just something new, something different. So hopefully that will attract a lot of people to downtown Selma and kind of becomes an annual thing. And every year they'll look forward to it and say, oh, we went to Selma and we did this. So let's do it again.

Besides the bid, are we looking at, is Selma looking at any other sponsors or partnerships?

The healthcare district is one that we're going to be looking at. And then some local entities such as like the Boys and Girls Club, school districts, things like that.

Even if it's not a financial sponsor, there's opportunity to have in-kind sponsorships and just ticket offerings to those groups. Like Matthew said, opportunities to share tickets with T-Ball. And the already built-in audience they have from all their recreation programs is a great opportunity to get the word out.

So number five. where you previous had it was one of my favorite partnership. And I think for us to even be able to allocate a certain amount like that comes from the allocation and the budget of the city council. So if we continue to show the bid that we're partnerships, then they're going to always look at us and say that we don't just hold on to the money. We're going to go out there and be partnerships. I mean, we're already a partnership with Selma Live, the art center. So when we collaborate together, we're doing things that will make things combined and it brings everybody together. that that's big, that's big for Selma. This is something that's gonna be making history. And I know that if what really brought me to thinking about when we had Han here and we were talking about the California grant, the California green cleaning grant opportunity, where if I might not be saying it correctly, but you guys know the $300,000 not the 3 million off Second Street, but the additional 300,000 and they're matching an additional 300. So we're looking at that 600,000 that that's going to help with some of the things that we need done for our downtown. So we want to be able to see by taking that chance, which I'm all for it. This is making history for our town. This is huge in Selma. This is going to be huge for families and especially the kids and making memories with the grandparents and parents and just everybody our families visit during the holidays. And I guarantee you a lot of people are going to be coming to Selma to visit their family now that the word's out. during the Christmas holidays. They are definitely coming to Selma versus their grandparents or the parents visiting them out of town. And number two, hopefully we will be able to get that $25,000 back in one of those grants. So we are definitely going to check into maybe replacing that pretty quickly. Hopefully, you know, if we have the votes to help with this, that $25,000 with the bid. So that's one possibility that we definitely want to look into so we can receive that back. But but again, it's going to show that we are partnerships with with other events and parks and recs has been really outstanding with all our events, whether it's the bid or the some alive. They're there constantly there to help do whatever necessary. needs to be done. And we just had our Selma Live, which was very successful and overwhelming. So this is a huge partnership and it showcases our park, our Lincoln Park here in Selma. This is going to make, this is going to be, I thought our stage there that was showcasing our events there. No, it's definitely going to be this ice rink. It's going to showcase our Lincoln Park for everyone. For history. So very exciting, like Ramza said. So just exciting for the entire city of Selma. Thank you.

I have a few comments I'm going to make on it. And good evening again, everyone. And I want to start by saying I support the idea of Selma Holiday Magic Ice Rink. And I think bringing people in downtown Selma during the holiday season can be a positive thing for our community and can create a more actively active in the downtown area, more activities out there. I understand that. However, after serving the downtown business since in the beginning, since this bid was created and I was on the board, I believe we have to remain a focus on a primary purpose of the bid, correctly improving and supporting our downtown business. And that's why the bid was created back and why the downtown business was created way back and it was to foster growth and development, to enhance downtown's appeal and to boost the marketing efforts. so the bid was created to help improve the throughout the program such as facade improvements doors windows exterior painting benches garbage cans cycling containers street signs beautification business marketing assistant to a new businesses and a community events that directly benefits our downtown business community And my concern is the proposed $25,000 bid sponsorship for the ice rink. $25,000 is a significant amount of bid money, and I am not convinced that the current proposal provide enough direct and measurable benefit to the downtown businesses to justify the expenditures. Bringing people downtown is a good, but we also make sure those visitors are actually shopping, dining, and spending money with the bid businesses. I would like to see specific... Commitments, not just the potential opportunities for the business to participate, receive marketing exposures, offer promotions, and the benefits for the events. I believe there are another way we can support the holiday magic ice rink. I would prefer... that the event is operated and financially supported by the private company or organizations. The City of Selma could still be a strong partner by helping with available spaces, permitted coordination, promotions, and other assistance that does not require the bid to be spent $25,000. If the bid does participate financially, I believe there should be a clear condition and measurable benefits for our downtown businesses and community, including a free of reduced cost vendor opportunities, customer promotion, skating tickets for business giveaway, restaurants and retail promotions, downtown marketing, and a plan to be measured in economic benefits to the bid businesses. Finally, I believe we need to ask ourselves, whether $25,000 could make a greater long-term impact if we invested it directly in a downtown Selma business. For example, through facade improvements, grants, beautification, signings, business marketing assistance to new businesses or other improvements that remain in our downtown and benefits business throughout the year. So I want to be clear that I'm not against holiday magic rings. I'm just asking The $25,000 for bid fund, is it under the current proposal? I want to see a ice rink succeed, and I want to see a downtown Selma succeed. But our responsibility as a bid board is to make sure bid dollars are used where they provided the greatest direct benefit to the business we represent.

Thank you. Quick question to clarify. In the presentation that you did, didn't you mention that there will be tickets or packages given to downtown business owners to promote their businesses through free giveaways or?

Yeah, it's on the board right there. And so those would be just a couple of the examples of it. But I don't know if you have the full thing ready to go, but we have a full listed out. And so if that was to happen, we have guarantees of what you guys would get for that dollar amount.

I just wanted to make sure I didn't misunderstand. So the downtown business owners will benefit, right? From this event, especially if they chose to be partners and offer, for example, free tickets to the rink for patrons that came and spent X amount of dollars or vice versa, maybe discounts on their meals if they came in with a rink ticket.

Yeah, and so that was some of the promotional items and cross-partnership that we could do where we have those skate nights. It's just a matter of what local businesses are willing to offer those discounts for the skate and things. So those are conversations that we still need to have before we can guarantee another business is willing to do that, right? But those are things that we're willing to do, yes.

Yeah, I just wanted to make sure because I heard your concern, but I thought it was already addressed in the presentation.

Yeah, those complimentary tickets. He's talking about those to the go-to.

No, he said all bid members, not board members.

The tickets are part of the package, so we would distribute them. So that's the thing about the work that you guys are doing. I leave it on the table for you guys to decide what benefits, like what would work best. We laid out some examples in this package. We're always willing to add or take away what you guys feel, but this is the presentation that we thought would work best. Yes, we're always open. for direct benefits and measurable metrics, if you want to establish those, that's what your job is as a board to do. So yes, I agree with what you were saying. This is a standard package that we developed and we're going to pitch to other businesses. But really, we're looking for a partnership with the downtown Selma. And that was the goal of the presentation.

So I think that's mainly... what would make this successful and beneficial for everybody. Just like we do the downtown events in the summer and the food truck Fridays is get every business owner in downtown to buy into this one way or another and see the benefit of this rink attracting more clients to downtown. And definitely we don't want them to come in, spend one hour on the skates and leave. That's not the goal. So we just have to make sure how we can quantify that into the Maybe them eating downtown, shopping downtown while they're here. I don't want anybody to drive just for the one-hour skating, but if we give them an incentive to spend a little more time and a little bit more money in downtown, it'll be a win-win for everybody.

And we could definitely provide, I could definitely provide place or AI data that shows, like I have for the downtown events. I've done plenty of presentations that show people coming here, the amount of time that they're spending here. And that's exactly what we're going to do here again. But there's also that narrative where I've heard stories of business owners saying, I stayed open later because I had extra foot traffic. So that type of thing makes you think that our events were working downtown. Of course, it's going to be hit and miss. But, you know, we have two types of data, the narrative story data, but also the hard number data from Placer AI, which I can show you that people are staying for a longer amount of time.

I probably think it's a win-win for the businesses. I really do. Not only because it's going to be a main attraction for a lot of families in the surrounding areas. The awesome thing about Selma is, like, right in the smack middle of all these surrounding areas. And instead of them going to, like, bigger cities, Fresno, Visite, they're going to be able to have an opportunity to actually come down to Selma and – I talk to a lot of families and with children and they will drive and it'll even be better because it'll be a lot closer versus them going to a bigger city. One of the things that will help the businesses is we'll be able to kind of. and go off of all the marketing that's going to be done for the skating rink. And then we can just use that to our advantage as far as the businesses here in town. I think it would be, like I said, a win-win. It would bring a lot of people, a lot of families, a lot of children. And once they're here, after they're skating, they're going to be able to see all these amazing businesses downtown. that they probably never even knew about. So I'm all for it. I'm excited about it. And I think it would be a great opportunity. Thank you.

I also want to just say quickly, we're not touching the facade, the grant, the additional $100,000. That's why I asked the additional $100,000 that's still there. That's additional. We're not even touching that. And, you know, you got to remember, everybody's going to shop and eat here, put gas, there's more to it. But I'd like, if we can, you're stating for us to be more creative as a board, I would like when the first day, the the ice rinks here and it opens up is the biggest ribbon cutting ever, ever. Every board member should be invited a business board member as well with the city council and everybody else who's going to be our partnership, because we're going to show the bid. You made history by being a partnership with us. This is me and you, you should be in that picture. That's going to be on the wall. And then in 50 years, Your business was in there when these kids that are not even born yet are going to be able to see that picture, that grand opening, that ribbon cutting of the bid and the businesses.

Thank you.

Good evening. Really quick, I kind of just wanted to add on and really touch on the partnership portion of this because it really is going to be a partnership, right? The City of Selma is going to put this on and you guys are still part of the City of Selma. And with that being said, I know that there's a lot of things that we're trying to incentivize you guys with to assist us with this, but it's also going to take some work from you guys as well. as the businesses, right? And so, you know, our challenge for you guys, because, you know, whether you decide to help us fund this project or not is really to encourage you to think about how your business can influence the traffic that happens, you know, with the rink on Mill Street. And so with that being said, we're going to encourage you guys to stay open longer hours. We're going to encourage you to offer some kind of free incentive. Like maybe it's a get 15% off that maiden voyage or, you know, maybe, um, I don't know about insurance or realty or all that good stuff. I'm sure we can find some kind of creative way, right. To really, you know, get people to visit you guys at your mom, pop shops. And so with that being said, um, I think this is a wonderful opportunity for you guys to jump on board and, and hopefully support the cause. I know that, you know, there may be some concerns with the Santa's parade and just know that, um, we're working on it internally. Um, the Santa's pray shouldn't be too, um, what's the word, affected by it. We're already working on, you know, how we're going to rewrite you guys down McCall Street, right? And so a lot of the operations are still going to be very similar. And then on December 5th, like you said, Rose, I think it would be a wonderful idea for us to do a big grand, you know, ribbon cutting or, you know, all that good stuff and invite you guys from the downtown to hopefully participate with us at the park or, you know, stay at your local business and then just include those incentives with that. And so, yeah, With that being said, I really hope that you guys consider this. This is going to be something that's going to be wonderful for our community. And then the last thing that I wanted to add just internally is we're really trying to work on figuring out ways to really bring in that foot traffic. And so like Matthew said, those theme nights are going to be really important. you know, discounted tickets, you know, every once in a while for certain things, certain ideas that we have. I'm also trying to work with Selma Unified School District to see if we can get some of the students here on a field trip during the day. And then I've already had conversations with the Boys and Girls Club about bringing, you know, our Selma Club over, but also our local clubs, you know, that are in our neighboring cities as well. And so I think that's just going to, you know, really bring in a lot of foot traffic into our city. And so we're going to be very busy for 16 days. Yes.

With that quickly, what came to my mind by you saying that you think we can have somebody from the kids from the art center. I know they usually publicize during the parade. whatever event they're doing, but maybe we can have the kids either from the high school or the art center collaborate together and have them do something in the parade that's them ice skating and remind everybody, it's coming, it's coming, going to the parade. That would be really, really cool. The community services, the carpet,

Community Services Department, that is one of our goals is to get that information out, be one of the floats going down the parade for the band festival. And so that is on our radar as well. And then including the Arts Center, like you just mentioned, we're working with them on potentially doing some kind of performance out at the ice skating rink as well. They usually do a holiday cabaret. And so we're working to see if we can really tie in everything together. Yes, there's lots of ideas. The wheels are spinning.

So I think, Jose, would it be maybe possible to send an email to all the bid members, all those businesses, giving them heads up and letting them start thinking what kind of packages they would like to promote to benefit from the foot traffic that hopefully the rink will generate? Yes. Another place I would talk to would be the dancing school as well. They might want to put, you know, in the centro de folklore. I mean, if groups come out that way, we can give them certain tickets, but seeing a group like that coordinated on the ice might also generate interest and some fun promotional items for the future. Yeah.

Absolutely, yes. We will email some business owners, but also in person. Since the emails we have aren't necessarily the businesses or the building owners, but I'll definitely walk over and let them know once we start promoting what this looks like a little bit more. But yes, I've met with the Parks and Rec team, and it's a full-on community involvement event where we can utilize all of the talent that's in our downtown space, give them the opportunity to perform, and invite them to the community event as well. So yes, that is 100% the goal.

Do you need to open it for public comments? I was going to do that right now.

I was just wondering. And the board members want to speak on it?

That's a quick thing. So that's basically my bread and butter of 559 Fights is selling sponsorships. And the biggest thing about every sponsorship that goes out is when somebody tells you or when you go to a business and tell them, hey, you know, Are you willing to give us $10,000 for marketing or to do marketing throughout 10 events or whatever it may be? At the beginning, they just see the $10,000 and they don't see the opportunity. So what my job is, is to show them the opportunities they're going to get throughout the entire thing. If it's a car sales company, the thing that they're going to benefit from is foot traffic inside and getting people to sign up for, you know, to win a basket at the front because they get a whole bunch of people's information. If it's, you know, someone that's doing online sales, they're going to benefit more from us doing their social media, you know, social media stuff. So what the, what it's going to take from us to justify $25,000 from here, which I think it would be easy to do so is go into these businesses and getting from them. What the bet, what, the best benefit they're going to get from us, you know, being in partnership with the downtown ice skating rink. Are they going to benefit from, you know, if it's a restaurant, Hey, can we have some sort of flyers here that they, Hey, 10, 10% or whatever, whatever it is from the interview business, what visibility are they going to get from the event? what opportunities are they going to get to get somebody from skating to their store or, you know, vice versa, from their store to the skating rink, being able to offer, hey, if you come and dine with us, you get 20% off the skating even or whatever. Just the small opportunities that each business individually is going to get because not all of them are the same. I don't think there's this huge encompassing thing that we can do with all of us. that's going to satisfy everybody. It's going to be, hey, what can this business benefit from? How can we tie them into benefiting from the $25,000 that the bid is spending on this sponsorship partnership deal? So it's going to take a lot of work. It's going to take a lot of individuals walking into businesses and stuff like that. So we're going to have to do that. Thank you.

I'm going to open it up for public comment.

Jim Avalos, 1701 Dinobah. I hear you guys' concerns. I had mixed concerns. I had the business district. It's all about showcasing your town. But the Avalos has, in the old days, I'm giving a little history of Selma. I'm part of the old group you know back then we had the you know the the cook-offs car shows downtown the band festival was bigger the reason why it was bigger because we showcased we brought people in but this is a different uh dynamic of business now see i believe that the only way we can bring these people you guys are the are the investors i look at you as the investors Okay, how are you going to get your money back? This is me telling you guys, more or less, help you plan. Okay, you guys invest, let's say, for the skating deal. You guys, in your businesses, you give out gift cards, and maybe every two hours, hey, we have a giveaway at the skating thing. And then we get the schools involved, you know, the singers. This is where your school board there, Nick, on the school board. You get the kids on the choir and the band. Bring the band out. And then we reach out to the other cities around us, Kingsburg, Fowler, Reedley, all these surrounding communities around us. This is something the first time in the history. History is made untold stories and life. You know, it happens. Things happen when people do things and react to it and do it and make it happen. And you guys are the group. This is your decision here. You got to tell us yay or no. You know what I mean? You know, either you say, but, you know, one way or the other, we're going to move on ourselves. You know, but we're willing to help you. You know, you guys are investing in our community. In return, we want to invest back. The only way we can invest is workers' partnerships, collaboration, all businesses and through our community, and our private donors, everybody that's on this tape, we need to step up and donate. And other cities around us, if they're willing to donate as well, because they're going to help bring their community too as well into our community and know our community because we're going to, in the future, we're going to grow together. There's no way around it. It's like, you look at Pinedale, where's Pinedale at today, right? It's River Park now, right? But see, it's all about who you are right now in the council. You guys are the board members. You got to step up to the future. You guys make things happen. You know, you got to take a step. Don't be afraid because in this country, this is America. We'll always take chances in this country. It's paid off. It's who we are in this country. And, you know, so I'm just telling you, we can do things, collaborate, work together and get things done. You know, but it falls on you guys. I want you guys to get the benefit. Okay. Thank you.

Good afternoon, everybody. Myself, Mahandeep Singh, 10013 South McCall Avenue, Selma, California. So you are talking about ice rink. I heard all of you. First of all, I want to mention you when I heard about three weeks ago about the ice rink, I was thinking maybe it's a wastage of money. We don't need that. Maybe or maybe it's good or bad. But I was thinking from my point of view. And unfortunately, most of us, we are like in about 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s. Ice rink is for kids. Kids are the future of our country, we say. And what we are going to provide them? Are we providing them enough opportunities to have fun? If ice rink is coming, I think we need to support it. We have to go for that. Reason being, we don't have enough for our kids here. I want my son to go for athletics, but unfortunately he can't go to, he's going to school, but the grounds are closed for us. I tried a couple of places. Even I spoke to one of the school board member and they mentioned me that window. I tried to go there, take my son over there for athletics practice. The doors are closed. There are chains. We can't do anything. And I can't call again and again for same things. We don't have enough opportunities for our kids. We don't have to be selfish. We have to think for the kids. As a city, what we are providing to the kids, we need to think that. And if something, a joyous moment is coming, I think we need to support it. I change my mind because I talk to my kids. I talk to my friends' kids. And even... Luckily, on this Saturday, I was speaking to someone and a friend of mine, he told me they have been going to Hanford for the same thing. I spoke to a couple of my friends in Fowler and they say, oh, we wait all year because kids have nothing to do. And same thing is happening. We don't have grounds for, we don't have enough, you know, like other outdoor activities for kids. So what we end up? PS5. Sit down over there and play. If it's coming, I don't think we need to think for profit and loss. We think for happiness over kids. The citizens of Selma, the residents around here, we need to be honest to them. And we need to do services according to their happiness as well. Thank you.

Robertson, 1057 Mill. You know, you do look at the cost of the ice skating rink, and then the way I looked at it is, you know, there is a cost, but there's also a benefit. And this money is not benefiting any particular person or interest. This benefit is to the whole city and the whole community. And like Mandeep just said, to the youth in particular of our community who need something. Look at the novelty of this and look at how much time your board has spent on this. It's really... You know, there's anti, but there's mostly pro. And I understand the initial opposition. I think everybody had that. But once you look at it and you see how the city's participating and the offset opportunities, I mean, it just really looks like something that could last a long time in Selma and become a tradition. like the band festival. You know, like the Raisin Festival. It's got to start somewhere. But there was opposition to those, too, when those started, too. So I think this is the first year. And I love hearing your board figuring this out. I think it's amazing. You've got some really good people on there that can look at tying this into the local businesses. We're one of them. We pay our dues, our bid fees. And I know I've heard from some people who've said, what do I get for my bid fees? Well, this is one of them. this is it, you know, something like this, thinking outside the box or the rink. and bringing a great attraction to the city of Selma that no one has right around us. And it's going to promote safety too, because people don't have to drive to Hanford in the fog anymore. And I've been hearing that a lot too with people I've been talking to. They don't want to have to drive to cities in the winter to get something as nice like this. We're going to have this here, and it's really uncreated. And I think our bid is the one creating it. So I really appreciate you guys taking leadership on this. Thank you.

Um, primary areas. Of course I have to talk on this. Everybody knows me knows that I love Christmas. Um, no, seriously. Um, no, this is going to be monumental whether this passes or not through the bid. Um, I want, just want to thank the city council for, you know, bringing this idea. I think it was our mayor pro tem, Sarah Gary, who brought this idea up in 24, 25 can't remember correctly. for city staff, you know, for working on this project. Like everybody else has said, I mean, I can't say anything else that nobody else has already said, but this is for the youth. This is for, this is a win-win for everybody, for the whole city of Selma. This shouldn't be, you know, who benefits, who doesn't benefit everybody's in a benefit, not just the city of Selma, but our surrounding cities as well. Like Mary just said, people go to Hanford and they just completely knock it out of the park. They started small. If I remember correctly from the last council meeting, they said that they started renting it and eventually it became profitable and they were able to purchase it. So now they have it now it's theirs. So who says that we can't do the same thing here in Selma? um at the last time alive i don't know if you guys were open up late you guys should have really taken advantage of that because let me tell you it was it was not chaotic in a good way i'll say that but it was really really um a great turnout i can tell you because my hand hurts still from serving the beer but no seriously you know uh people just look forward to our events you know we're definitely bringing a lot of people back to downtown, which is good. You know, we're showcasing our city, our downtown, our new tree wells, our lights, everything. It's looking really, really good. And this is going to be, you know, just over the top, you know, just that cherry on top that, you know, we really need. It really will put our city on the map. You know, no more going into Fresno, Hanford, like I just said earlier. So I understand, you know, there is a price tag, just like anything else. We do have to take a risk. I mean, it doesn't work out, you know, we don't meet the numbers and you know, Hey, we tried it out. It didn't work out. So be it, you know, but I think it's always better to do it and regret it than not to do it and regret it. Thank you. Thank you.

No, I knew that's why I turned around and looked at you.

Uh, Santiago, um, Everything pretty much been said, but I just want to say, you as a group, as a board, need to take a chance and say, you know, this is for the kids. If not for that, who are we doing it for? You know, I didn't sign up to be in council just because. I signed up because I wanted to help everybody. You know, when we started Selma Life a couple of years ago, we were told, well, you know, It's a big chance you're going to take. We took a chance. This last one, we were clocked in at 2,200 people. Now, you tell me if that's not successful. Last year in September, Pepe Marquez brought in 2,500 people. Now, if we can look at ourselves and say we can benefit from that, You guys must have missed them. Because I tell you what, like Brian said, last Friday, it was so hectic, but it was a good kind of hectic. You know, you looked out there and the whole park was full. It was just completely full. So take a chance, you know, take a chance on the kids. Thank you.

Chair. Yes.

Are we in discussion afterwards or are we ready for a motion? We can discuss if you... I can take a motion. I just wanted to say I think this... I'm in favor of this and I think it's definitely going to benefit Selma. I'd love to partner with them. And I don't feel that we're going to do what we are set out to do and help the businesses here in town. So... I guess I'm going to make the motion that we do this. I'll second it. Any other discussion? All in favor say aye.

Aye.

One abstain. Motion carries. Next on the agenda is the winter decor. No, it's fall decor, I'm sorry.

Okay, as we discussed in previous meetings, we're preparing for fall decor. We talked about steering away from Halloween decor and more of like a fall theme that included hay bales. some pumpkins. I went to Selma Elm Feed Store where they offer hay bales for $12 each. You can see there's an estimate on there for about $10. If we needed them for the tree walls, they would come out to $120. There's no tax. They do a return program. I believe they give you $7 back when you return them if you're just using them for decor. We would reimburse some of the money for those um those hay bales um i had one per tree well and maybe some extra i don't know if what the vision was if you want two per tree well uh but that's that cost associated for that decor uh the second part that everybody mentioned was some type of pumpkins like these um i guess they're called heirloom pumpkins i see them i made a voyage like the type of different variety of pumpkins if you go to the next page you'll see what this business in kingsburg offers and i reached out to them and they gave me a quote of about five dollars to twenty per pumpkin just depending on the size um and i just wanted to provide this option to you guys if this was the if this was the direction that we were thinking um as far as the hay and the pumpkins, I can move forward with, with purchasing some of them. Um, if you just give me a set amount to not exceed, and then I can move forward with reaching out to those businesses. Uh, I think there was a discussion about maybe adding some sort of light fixture as well. Um, I'll let you guys discuss, I guess, a board member Robertson may have a perspective on what kind of lights to add, but, uh, this was the, um, This was the core of what that decor looked like. I'm open to discussion of how many we should buy or if you don't want this at all. But this is what I was able to find locally. So supporting our local businesses.

So hay alone is not going to cut it. So we definitely need the hay and the pumpkins. I like the idea of supporting local and have those and maybe adding some orange lights to our trees because at night they're not going to be able to see like the hay and the pumpkins. So we either wrap it around the hay and the pumpkins in a little decorative manner, or we wrap it around the tree, some orange lights, and then we will be good for two months until Christmas decor comes.

What do you think about, um, if you guys are familiar with like up lighting panels, like it's a LED panel, You could change the color of it, like point it at the decor. I mean, I'm just throwing it out there. Or do you want sparkly lights?

I'm okay with any kind of lights. Personally, like I'm not going to say one way or another. I think whatever is beautiful and cost efficient.

We could try what you're talking about. I have a few of them. I could show you what a test would look like, and then we could purchase them if we need to. But they're up lights. They have color changing, and you can make them brighter and dimmer.

And we could keep it at orange. Okay. The good thing about those is for Christmas, we can use a different color, like instead of always having to purchase different lights for different holidays. And we can program them for all the different holidays that we have.

If you've ever been to like a wedding or quinceanera, they usually have them like pointed up to the wall to add like splashes of color. They're pretty affordable at this at the moment. So maybe I could look into that too.

What about instead of just the hay bales, like corn stalks, like the decor ones, you can stick them in the ground?

If we get wind or rain, I think those will... I don't know. My experience with those has been bad because if you get a very heavy windy night or rain, they'll just pretty much collapse.

But I could be wrong. On the trees? I don't know how big the trees are, to be honest. I haven't seen them.

They're big.

They're pretty big, right? They're big enough to hold the stalks up against it because it would just add to the theme.

You mean like scarecrows?

Yeah, like scarecrows. Yeah, you could do something like that too, but I was just thinking corn stalks would make it into the festivities. Add to the festivities.

There we go. Oh, and one last thing about returning the habit to make sure that nothing like the city isn't spraying for something pesticide or whatever, because when they return them, when they take them back, usually it's to basically give them to the livestock. So we don't want to.

Sure. We may just absorb the cost if it's. Yeah, because I don't know what they put in the tree. Yeah. What's that? Straw bales. These are straw, not alfalfa. They do offer alfalfa, but that's I was looking at the straw ones.

If we do straw ones, definitely no pesticides or anything, but they're not going to feed them. They're not going to feed straw.

I have a question on the pricing and the size. Do you have any idea on I mean, it says five to 20. So I'm imagining that the 20 is the massive ones. How big are those?

Great question. Um, these are the photos that the vendor was able to, to offer. Um, I didn't, I haven't visited, visited them yet, so I can get a better perspective. Um, but if you look at that image, that light green one looks like that would be a large, um,

Yeah. And that third picture, the small ones are probably the $5 ones.

Yeah. And yeah, those smaller ones are, no. I mean, if you guys want to take a field trip out there and pick them yourself, I mean, I'm open to that. I'll go with you. I can do petty cash and we could, we can pay for the pumpkins if anybody wants to go out there together.

How many do you think we need per tree? Well, that's up to you guys. Like three, five, four. I mean, Maybe one big one and a few small ones.

So three to four each. Is that like $25 or $30 per well? Because if you think about it, we kind of want to average how much we want to spend per well. Because there's 10, right?

If we're going to do 20 for the big one and maybe three small or medium, we're looking maybe at 40 per well.

10.

10.

About $400 in pumpkins and was it $150 in hay bales or $120? $120. $120 in hay bales? So more. OK. That's not a terrible cost. That's good.

So are we intentionally trying to support local, which is why we're going to choose to go there?

For the pumpkins, you mean? That was honestly the only one that had pumpkins available at the moment that matched that type of look. I reached out to Hillcrest and they said that they didn't have pumpkins yet. That was last month. I called them again last week and they haven't returned my call. Hillcrest. Is the only other vendor, do you have another vendor that you know of?

No, not vendor. I was just thinking about stores. I know I got my pumpkins for like $8.99, the massive ones.

Okay.

But that's also like hit and miss with.

The variety. The variety, yeah.

What store? So I got my Trader Joe's. So the ones that I have at the shop, they're exactly like this.

Yeah.

But I got those for about $8.99, large ones, heirlooms. Yeah, I can look into this greater Joe's grocery outlet carries them as well. For about the same price.

I don't mind going. If you want to go sometime, we could go look around and get the best deal. Yeah, I think that's a great idea, actually.

The action is Walmart. Also, sometimes they have a giant thing of white ones the other day.

So, yeah, different colors.

And let's we do like a like a mashup where we get some from the store, maybe the big ones, and then we can still go out to the farm and gather some of the smaller ones. I don't know. Unless you just want to do it all in one.

I'm open to options. If anybody wants to purchase them, that's even better. And then just bring me their seat back and I will petty cash you back. I'm not a pumpkin connoisseur. I don't, I haven't seen any other than your shop lately. A lot of people don't have them out yet. So it's up to you guys. So we could start purchasing them now.

Is that correct?

They're available. Yeah. It sounds like they are. Yeah.

If we do, we'll text them to you to make sure you see what's coming in.

I think we can call Simonian Farms. I usually see tons of crates in front of us. That's not too far from us. I can go pick them up if we need to.

Maybe we all need to do our homework. I'll split up.

So I found that one on Facebook Marketplace and I reached out to the vendor and they said I can go by anytime to take a look at them. They're in Kingsburg. So that's why I was like, oh, they're actually available now. So it's up to you guys. I'm open to whatever option you go. The action is to have a certain amount that you want to allot to the entire project.

So are we good about 6, 6, 7? Is that clear?

About 750. We want to account for the hay, for the lights, and for the pumpkins. We can say not to exceed if we manage to cut that cost down. But if you're looking for an action item tonight, we could say up to $750. That goes about $75 per tree. Well, and hopefully we won't have to use it all.

Do you have an estimate of the lights? How much they cost?

I don't, I don't have a, yeah, I don't know.

I've never seen those, but I know what you're talking about, but I've never bought them, but not to exceed seven 50.

Um, that's the number. If you guys want to make the motion, the complete motion, and then take a vote on it whenever, if you're done with discussion, make a motion that we spend up to $750 on fall decor.

I'll second.

So I have a first from Ramza and a second from Rose and not to exceed $750 for the holiday set up of the trees. Okay. Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

The last item is more decor in the sense of the Christmas holiday season. The items presented to you are an opportunity to have placement in the holiday magic ice skating rink. You scroll down, you're going to see a nine foot illuminated star arches and a nine foot snowman would make great like photo op opportunities for the downtown space. We can add some sort of downtown signage on there as well to just promote the brand. But it's really partnering with the incoming ice skating rink to make it feel like the holiday magic aspect of it so that it's not just the rink. So these are some decor that is available right now through, I believe, Costco in River Park. They are in very limited, they're very limited right now. So it's in-person buy only. And I forgot, I did not have the cost on there. Let me double check.

I believe $3.89 or $3.50, $3.89. For each one? Yeah, that's very reasonable.

So the online cost was $500, but when you buy it in store, it's significantly less. Yeah, so it was $3.

Whoever gets the, if it goes through, they need to pick them up quickly. That's something like tomorrow. They're going to go.

Yeah, otherwise you'll find yourself driving to all the places.

Yeah, the in-store cost for the Star is $379.99. $397? $379. And the cost for the Snowman is $199.99, and that is in-store price. So there's probably an opportunity where if I have to get it, where I could work with our new admin analysts to figure out how to go pick them up. If you guys want to move forward with a couple or however many.

So these are around the rink?

These would be around the rink or in the park. These probably wouldn't be in the tree wells because it's nine foot tall. But these are photo opportunities where people could stand and post on social media.

Right. So do you think if we did one star and two snowmen, one on each side, is that enough?

Or two stars and one snowman?

Stars are more expensive sometimes.

The stars would fit in almost multiple people, like a family under it.

Yeah, I thought maybe one star and two snowmen.

Looking at the structures, there's probably opportunity for some type of downtown Selma cutout to be placed on there for branding purposes. put it in the snowman's hand, or I don't know. There's lots of opportunities for us to be branded to show that we purchased these.

There's also other little pieces. I don't know if you saw just these, but there's little bears and stuff that are the same price as the snowman deal. So if we want to do a snowman and another one.

As long as they're available in-store, I think that's the biggest issue we had, is the online store. Is it a bear?

What is it? Like a little kid?

Like a little bear. Yeah.

Aww. And how much are those?

That one, so if it's $2.19, the other one was $2.99 on here, but it's $1.99 in person, so it'd probably be about the same or less. Okay. Yeah, something like that. There's just a whole bunch of other things. There's like a little Nutcracker deal. Well, that one's indoor. There's the Gold Deer family.

As long as they're tall so they can take notes.

Yeah, they're like this type of thing. There's a 7.2-foot bear. Pretty cool.

So what I'm hearing is one star, one snowman, and one bear. Is that what I'm hearing?

That works.

Whichever one's available. Whatever's available, basically.

Yeah, if you get there and there's no bears, let's say their snowman will do that or vice versa.

Great. Yeah. So you think you can get it done tomorrow? Because, I mean, this is really exciting. But I'm telling you that.

So who has the truck, Rosa? Who has a truck that can go tomorrow?

Costco close.

I don't know. Eight o'clock.

No, they're like eight.

You want to go? She's like right now.

Volunteer where you come up, you're volunteering. You're going to go.

I probably have to go tomorrow. What time do they open? I can figure it out.

Nine.

Really?

Nine?

Yeah. Exactly. Okay, so we're good on the one star, one snowman, one bear.

Yeah, but I think they're public comment. Yeah, public comment. Polar bears.

Polar bears.

For sure. Yeah, the polar bears are cute. They're cute. Brian Maris again. Can I see the bear? Can we see it? you don't have it okay it's on oh you want the because again i am i'm crowning myself the king the king of christmas but um the star i seen the star actually in person it's really nice so that would look really nice in the entrance i know people are going to be it's going to be a disaster with people wanting to go in and out but that would look really nice um you know taking pictures before they enter the skating rink You do want to kind of coordinate, though, two snowmen on the sites, you know, ice, snow. Other than that, you can also try Home Depot, Lowe's. I've got my stuff there as well. I know sometimes it's a little pricey, but their stuff is really nice. So if anybody has seen my house, you know what I'm talking about. Thank you.

So I think we need a motion to decide what we're actually wanting to purchase.

So I have one star, one snowman, one polar bear, if available, in-store purchase only, right?

Right. I make that motion. So basically, I make a motion to purchase one star, one bear, one snowman, or two snowmen if there's no bears in the store. I come up and bring them home.

Something cute.

Something cute.

I second.

Any for the first and the second? Ramsey is the first, Rose is the second, right? Yes, correct. Any other discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries.

The staff update? Yes. No updates other than the ice skating rink, figuring out ways to embed the downtown businesses in there, how we can really build that bridge from all the downtown spaces to walk over to that. If you're around for the initial plans, it was slated to be in front of the library, but I really advocated for it to being closer to McCall so that there's that visibility. If you're walking down High Street or you're coming down Second Street, we really need it to be visible for people. Also, the parking situation. I want people to be able to park and then walk down the streets to get to the ice skating rink. So just figuring out more ways that businesses could benefit from this draw. It's already going to draw a lot of people. I'm already planning a whole media campaign to get the news stations out here to see it because it's the first time we're doing this. So downtown Salma is going to be named in all of those media mentions. So it's really... It's not only a campaign for the ice skating rink, it's a campaign for downtown by proximity. So I'm really excited for this. Working with the Sparks team to make sure that we promote this and all the cities surrounding know about this event. So that's kind of what my goal has been for the past couple of weeks is figuring out how to market this and how to reach those target audiences in our neighboring towns. Yeah, that's pretty much all I have.

request for future agenda items?

I don't have a request for future agenda item. I just wanted to say I'm sure everybody heard, but if not, Randy McFarland passed away and he was the voice of Selma for many, many years. Randy loved our town unconditionally and did a lot, and he was the voice of the parade for many years and the voice of the band festival for many years. So I just want to say I'm set to see him go, and whoever would like to participate, I think his family posted about his services September 26th, if I'm not mistaken. But just wanted to mention that, and he's going to be missed. Awesome.

Yeah, he literally wrote the book on Selma. So there is a book. If you haven't seen it, check it out. It's a great book that goes into the details of the history of the city. And definitely, if anybody has contacts with the family, I'd love to reach out to them to see if I could post something. I always want to be respectful before sharing it on city resources.

I'll give you Laurel's phone number.

Great.

Great.

Thank you. I missed the updates, but I just wanted to give the board an update. So yesterday was my first time doing volunteering service with one of the high school kids. He wants to get back on the football team, so he needs to do his community service. I do it for leadership and just people volunteering. So what we did yesterday for the downtown businesses is we – We took down all the flags, so you won't see the flags anymore because we're getting ready to put the fall items in, and they will help with the fall items as well once they all come in. We cleaned all the tree walls. If you guys ever walk through there, a bunch of trash gets stuck in there, and people throw their cups there, and it's all sticky and everything. We cleaned all the tree walls out. We walked around. high street second street and picked up trash all against the sidewalk a lot of these trash bins where you see the recycle holes and the trash holes they don't push the trash down they're just hanging out so we cleaned we pushed all that in he so he was able to do an hour he's coming back Wednesday and Thursday to do three more from 3.30 to He's giving up his football practice to finish his three hours on Wednesday and Thursday and anybody else that needs. any leadership or any services, they could come help. We're going to continue the cleaning the trash. Sometimes the trash cans, when people spill their soda, it just spills all to the side of the trash cans. We'll double check those. We did a little bit of the alleys in the back. We did Maiden Voyage. It was very packed yesterday for Sunday. So that was really good. And we made sure there was no trash around there. So when people were talking out in their cars with their coffee. It looked pretty clean. So we did some work and it was good. So Wednesday when he comes, I'm usually with, you want a parent or one of the board members with the kids volunteering at all times. So tomorrow we'll be cleaning more, but we will definitely go to the mixer on Wednesday. Okay. So he's going to be able to see what else, you know, the bid is involved in the businesses. So they don't just learn about picking up trash and, you know, all that stuff. They're going to learn the combination of the mixers and anywhere I have to be, that's where they're going to have to be just so they can learn more about the city. So, and the volunteering and more, I let them know that Sparks also has other areas that they're volunteer as well. And hopefully it'll work for everybody who needs community service and we're out there, the city's out there to give it to them. So I just wanted to give you, and we brought back the flags and the lights. They're back in Jose's office. So all done.

Thank you. Thank you, Rosie. I have a quick staff update. I forgot to mention this. I've been working with, well, planning has been working on a presentation to take to the planning commission where they're going to try to establish an overlay zone in the downtown area space. What that means it's, it's, It's a special zone that the downtown area and business owners may have to do certain things. Like maybe these are just possibilities about being able to host an event without going through the entire permitting process. Certain incentives that the downtown space will have now that it'll be like an ordinance change and an overlay zone. So that's something that's coming. City planner Megan was able to share a little bit with me what they're planning and working on. so i wanted to reiterate that there are going to be certain incentives um that downtown businesses will um will have access to outside of the municipal code that already exists uh because it'll be an overlay zone so that's something that's coming in in the works as well um it's going to go to planning and then once it goes to planning it goes to council i think it's up to us they're looking for us to guidance like what would be a great incentive to be part of that overlay zone is it allowing parklets certain spaces is it allowing um you know music past 10 o'clock into 11. it's just whatever we come up as a body we make suggestions to what this overlay zone could look like so i'll have more details as it as it progresses along but planning um planner megan was able to let me know that's coming down down the road so i think no dad what what So the status of the bid assessment fees needs to be presented to the bid board and you guys would make a recommendation to the council. I reached out to city attorney to see what that looks like. I got an email on Friday that kind of hashes out what that could potentially look like. So once I sift through all of the attorney speak, then I can have a better idea of how to present to you guys of what the steps are for that to happen. So that's why I didn't put it on today's agenda because I didn't feel like it was ready for that. But it has been in the works that there is if you if the body does decide to make it a flat fee, what the steps would be to go down that route. So the attorney, I've been working with the attorney to establish what that looks like.

Would that be something for next meeting? Yes, that could potentially be something for next meeting. Okay, I don't think there's any other business.