Downtown Development Authority - Regular Meeting

All right. Good morning, everybody. Thanks for joining us. We're going to go ahead and call the order. So the first item, if we review and if I can get a motion to approve today's agenda. Motion to approve. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor? All right. All right. I think we do have some citizen input this morning. All right. Yeah. Morning. Morning.

Good morning. My name is Nick Groves. I'm with Finished Goods Brew Works. I represent the brewery in sharing with y'all an idea and a plan we have to further the engagement of Hal Jackson Park. We would like to put in a playground. And this is something that furthers our agenda of being a community gathering space, a community living room. We've got a great place for adults. And what we've noticed over the past couple years we've been here is that so many families have young children. And when they come to enjoy their time in downtown Winder, the children are kind of blended into the adult spaces and we would like to give them a safe place where parents can enjoy their time and while giving the children their space to be kids. So we're looking for a partner to help us do this. It's a little bit pricey, but we're looking for a partner that shares the same vision and There is many things that we thought about in consideration for this project. With Legacy Park, of course, a beautiful, wonderful addition to the downtown area. It's a spectacular park, among the best in the state, I think. It is a little bit of distance away. It's a destination, and what we're looking for is really some place to supplement in the downtown area, specifically somewhere between the downtown area and Jug Tavern Park. So something right there, right in the middle, just a few hundred feet away. well within walking distance with any of the other downtown local businesses that serve food. Of course, we invite any outside food to be in our building and on our property. So this would only be a, hey, grab it from another local business, go down to Hal Jackson Park, and let the kids frolic around. And... We have invested so much into the park already, and we continue to do so because we see the value of that being a really fantastic outdoor meeting space and gathering space, if you notice, the garden, the seasonal garden. That gets changed over by the season with seasonal appropriate fruits, not fruits, but vegetables and herbs. That will continue to be there. It's a pollinator garden. We have a team of master gardeners that invest their and volunteer their time into doing that. We have a very healthy program of live music on the stage. And of course, we maintain the park and hope that people enjoy it even outside of our brewery hours. We're very proud of that asset for the community that we're very happy to maintain. And I think the only large question that when I first talk to people about this, they say, well, a playground at a brewery? And to I've included some examples to display that it's actually not that uncommon. There are some very successful breweries, most notably Stillfire in Sewanee, that have a playground right on their doorstep. In fact, their second location in Smyrna, they realized that was such a large asset to the community that they dedicated their whole front yard to a much bigger playground. And I've been there with my niece and nephew, and I see the value of what a really neat community-minded space that creates. But I just wanted to share this with the city and let you all know we're looking for a partner to help make this financially possible. We would figure out all the logistics and even install it ourselves using our construction and building know-how. And we certainly... Learned a lot building that building. But if you have any questions, immediately let me know. And if not, you can please reach me through my email, which I failed to include that on the paper, but I'd be more than happy to pass out a business card on my way out. Are there any questions immediately?

You know, I think, if I'm not mistaken, Anna, maybe you can... Refresh my memory on this. That park, when that building was CO'd, was that not deeded over to the brewery, the lot that the park is on? Isn't that owned? Is it wholly owned by the brewery now, that park? Yeah, yeah. Okay, yeah. Just trying to draw lines from a liability perspective as far as using to pick up the exposure there from the playground. But, yeah, that certainly, I mean, I like the idea of it. I think it's definitely something worthy of additional consideration as we kind of move through the process and look at that budget there. And then also, I know we look like we have the staff from Finished Good installing it. You may want to consider that also. Same thing, just for manufacturer spec on a liability standpoint, you may want to get a contractor to install just to defer some of the liability there as well. But yeah, I mean... Anytime we have better spaces for people to gather, I think it's a really good idea. And please do pass your card if you don't mind. If you have one, that'd be great.

With the playground there, I guess no more of the wrestling in there?

You know, we thought about that. And we've got forward eyes. And, of course, there's a lot of other things that we really like to have that open space for. Mechanical bowl, festival tents and whatnot, vendor tents. And we've talked with them at their last event there. We said, hey, is there a possible second place for this to happen? And they identified another area on the opposite side that could also happen if we were to raise the lights a few feet. But they ultimately said, hey, you know what? We don't really need a lot of overhead space. We can do it upstairs in your event space if needed. And that took me by surprise, but Those wrestling folks are so dedicated, they're just happy to be there. They will make anything work. Also, we're also considering growing that event and possibly looking into the process of what it would mean to shut the street down in order to bring more activities and space for everything to happen. So if that area is occupied by a an asset such as a playground that brings a wider variety and more volume of people, then I think it would be very worth looking into, all right, well, what does a temporary street closure permit look like and how do we do that? And let's figure that out so we can make a bigger party. Thank you.

You can come on up.

Good morning.

Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. How are you? Good. How are you? Can I pass it out to you? I have a one-pager, but I have a decision for you all. So my name is Susan Jordan, and I am a resident...

So I've been doing hospitality for the 20 plus years.

I was over in Athens for the last two years as a director of sales over there at the foundry and what was formerly the graduate hotel. So I live over here. And so coming and going over to the brewery, the building right across the structure of it, the aesthetics of it rather, I was like, that would be a perfect destination open air concept for destination weddings, charities, galas, actually, you know, anything over there in that space. So I did meet with Mr. Muir and the planning development department. So they kind of told me to just bring it and introduce it to the DDA team here. And I just wanted to put it in front of you because I'm looking for a partner, but I'm also looking for next steps. And, of course, this is my first time in front of a DDA, so bear with me, have a little grace, and, you know, you can help me out with it. But I was thinking just definitely working in hospitality from Athens to Atlanta to Midtown, doing catering and events. I know that people will do destinations. They will drive ways out. to host weddings, and I see that this would be a space that they could use. It would increase your hotel rooms, our hotel rooms here, restaurants, small businesses, because we would have to use, of course, portable generators, luxury porta-potties, solar lighting, because it is an open air. So then the small businesses could be the vendors of that space. That's just my kind of ideal and concept.

So tell me, when you say partnership, tell me what that looks like.

What does it look like? That part, to be honest with you, I'm not exactly sure. I know when I talked to the city, the city would still own the land and the purse, so I would do the operation and the marketing parts. So that's what I want to know, what Could the DDA, what could we possibly do, as you see, in a partnership to get this on the table and possibly developed in the budget for 2027?

Yeah, so just initial thoughts. We have a public comment. private partnership, right, which is fantastic. Love those concepts. But it would be a true partnership, right? So the city's skin in the game, the DDA's skin in the game, would be the property that's there, right? We need to get that utilized, and it's a property that needs to be utilized. Correct. We've fortunately had a lot of developer interest in that whole track. So with that portion cut off, which is fine. I'm not saying that it's a bad idea, but... renovations have got to be done to secure the site and make sure that it's safe.

Yes, that's what they did say.

So there's certainly capital expenditure that's going to come up with that. So would you propose the DDA and the city doing all of that work and then you utilizing it as a private business, or are you going to partner in some of the costs as well?

I would think about partnering in some of the costs as well, of course, getting the structure, the windows, the things of that nature. And then I was thinking of, What I proposed was it be leased, an affordable lease out to me. And then I operated from there, but the city was still on it. So that was my initial thought process.

What is your estimate on? I know you've got an event planning background, right? And certainly Foundry is an awesome facility, a really cool place there. Yes. What would be your goal, the number of events that you'd have there annually?

Well, from my background with a space, a destination space like that, you could be looking at possibly 100 weddings plus in a year, year-round, at least 100 plus weddings. The Foundry was huge at one time in weddings. Also, of course, the music venue. So bringing the bands out with you. We could, but I'm not interested in as much. But at least 100-plus weddings there, plus charity events, galas. You have graduations that would come and do their parties there as well. So at least, I'm thinking maybe 200-plus events, if not more. But I know at least 100-plus weddings could come out. And that space looks like it can hold, reception style, at least 250 to 300 people. On the inside of it, of course.

What would the concept be for securing the building during non-operating hours? Because I know currently it's utilized for pictures. People jump those barriers all the time.

They were telling me, yeah.

And take pictures constantly.

Correct. So everything, after every event, it would be taken down and then everything would be placed in storage. So it would only be. set up and utilize if there was an event taking place. So we're talking about, you know, tents and things of that, tables, but everything will be in the storage area. And then we would set it up on event day or the day prior. And then we would have, if we need it overnight, we usually would not probably do a 24 hour hold because it is an open air space, but they can come early morning and start a setup. The same as they would do like in Chateau Elan when they use the atrium. So like six in the morning, I'm not sure of the noise. We're going to see if it's like 11 o'clock, but then they would break it down. We would break it down to 11 o'clock and everything would be rolled out that night. So it would go back to just a blank slate. Unless it was decor flowers on the building.

Anybody else? Any other questions? Go ahead. Really cool concept. We'll definitely look at that and discuss it. Thanks so much for being here and thanks for presenting it. Cool idea. Any other citizen input for the day? Okay, great. So moving on to approved minutes from the prior meeting, July the 21st. We'll take a look at those minutes and get a motion once you guys have an opportunity to approve. Do I have a motion to approve? I'll make a motion to approve. Second. Second. All in favor? All right. So moving on to new business, I think Stacy Waters has a discussion of upcoming events for us.

Sorry, it was already on. I'm so used to having to turn it on. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for being here today. I just wanted to touch on some of our upcoming events and our prior events. We had one on August 7th, which was our end of summer bash. Unfortunately, the rain was, or the weather was not on our side as it So we did have to put the high school bands on hold, and hopefully we'll have them out another time. But Dueling Pianos was fantastic. It was a little wet out there, but we still had a great turnout, of course. So thank you to everyone who was able to make it. September 19th, we have our Radio 80s. coming out so wear your best 80s gear and join us and then October 2nd we have barrels and brews at the last DDA meeting we discussed DDA helping with games and so forth and putting together some baskets if there's anything that I can help with on that please let me know We are having the Better Than Better Than Ezra coming out to perform. They're going to do an acoustic for us. And so when they're taking their breaks is when we'll have the games going on, which hopefully you guys will still be able to help with. We will have... Other breweries, we're partnering with Finished Goods. And then Top Shelf will come out with eight other breweries with their beers and so forth for everyone as well. So we also have Spooktacular coming up on October 23rd. We have a lot of local businesses that have already signed up to participate. If anyone else is interested, please sign up. We have that on Event Me. Yeah, it's going to be wonderful. And our theme is Pirate's Cove. So hopefully all the businesses downtown and the booths that are coming out will partake in the theme this year. And we also have the tree lighting on November 20th here in Jug Tavern Park. And then we'll have the Christmas parade and Santa's after party there. The parade is also on Eventany. And if any local businesses want to sell or craft vendors want to sell at the after party, please sign up on Eventany as well. Do you guys have any questions regarding events?

On the barrels and brews, you mentioned that we're going to put together some prize baskets. How many of those do you need?

For first place winners, we'll have three games, so three first prize winner baskets, please. Great.

How's the September 4th event? Is that... Chalk the Walk? Yep, the Chalk the Walk.

Yeah, so the branch and the school system are partnering for Chalk the Walk, and we are hosting that at Jug Tavern Park on September 4th. I believe that they've... gone around to some of the local businesses here in downtown as well to see if they want to participate in decorating their sidewalks in front of their business. And if other businesses within the community would like a space, there's a There's a site that you can go on to register, and you can put up a tent and decorate the sidewalk over at Joe Tavern Park. That is from 6 to 9 on September 4th, which is two years.

Can we get that post put on the DDA's page? For people to sign up?

Yeah, absolutely. We'll be happy to share that.

And I know it goes out to more than just Winder. It's all of Barrow County, correct?

Oh, absolutely. We would love for all the businesses, organizations, you know, to participate in that, of course. Thank you. You're welcome. And then also, I have Lee Everett here with us. He's our risk analyst for the city of Winder. We also just wanted to sort of touch base on other events that are happening downtown. If any of the businesses are hosting an event and so forth that's on city property or streets and so forth, basically permits need to be pulled so that the city is aware. And I'm going to let Lee take over from here to help with all that.

Yeah, I promise I won't be too much of a Debbie Downer on that end. But good morning, everybody. I'm Malia Everest, U of State and risk analyst here. The main thing that's been brought to our attention is just I think the events have gotten more and more each weekend. So they're having bouncy houses, having horses, dog contests, things of that nature. So we need to make sure those coverages are within their COIs. I mean, I haven't gotten those COIs. And also, I would recommend if we're going to continue to, I guess, increase the vastness of these events, probably some type of written agreement would help in regards to that. Just making sure that we're, you know, decreasing the liability exposure for everyone. And keep everyone safe. That's my main goal here at the city. So that's kind of where I was trying to step in and help out in any way, shape, or form I can. So, yeah.

Yeah, I think that's great. I think, of course, the permits naturally managed by the city of Winder, not us, we can get the word out and help leverage social media or whatever else we can. From a liability perspective, all of those events, bounce houses, horses, it's going to be outside the normal scope of operations for every single one of those businesses, and it probably is going to require a special events policy, and it's going to need to be specifically stated in the description of operations box on that certificate of insurance. Absolutely. So really going to have to spell that out. Are you the one that monitors those certificates?

Yes, and honestly, I think what I'm getting at is just some type of approval process for authorizing those coverages.

I would say in that permit that they're filling, we need to make sure we have some disclosure in there that, hey, If the event is outside the scope of operations for the business, then we need to have the specific operations of that event, you know, described in that description of operations box on the certificate. So whoever our city attorney is at the moment can probably assist with drafting that document. Oh, 100%. Yeah.

That's what I would – Constant conversation. Good, yeah.

So I would – gladly push that off on the city council and the city attorney. But we're happy to help get the word out and make people aware of that. We want folks to have these events and bring people in and make Winder an exciting place, but as you said, we need to do it in such a way that's... And everything has risks.

You know, it's not that, again, that we're trying to, you know, just do away with it, but there's all sorts of processes in place that we have to follow.

Absolutely. And I agree with the whole CLI as far as making sure it's properly insured. But with the permit process, will that require them to pay those central fees that we set up this Jackson Street to sort of eliminate those permit fees required?

Yeah, I'm not as sure. Exactly where that's more permanent in question. I would say probably so, but I know it's probably written through the resolution that those fees are skipped over in essence of that. Again, that's a permitting question.

Yeah, I think we probably have the fees still. They're just going to have to comply with the necessary documentation.

Yeah, they still comply with the insurance, but with Jackson Street being closed off, we avoided. We did that to encourage more natural events. And with the permitting in there, I know there's associated fees with that. So if there's any way that we can make sure. It isn't hindering the events because it's bringing in a lot of foot traffic. And I know there's limitations to those permits saying if you're going to have more than 100 people show up to this event, you've got to have a city employee as well that attends the event. Am I correct in that? Yeah, I guess maybe make a small district an outlier. I don't know. Warren would probably know better.

And I think some type of written agreement could probably speak to those things. I know, of course, we already have the resolution, but if we kind of gang out the city attorney and broke those things down, I think that would be great for everyone.

Sounds great. Yeah, if you just If you want to loop us in when you communicate with him, if we can give any feedback, we'd appreciate that. Awesome. Thanks so much. Thank you.

Any other questions? Thank you.

Thank you, Stacey. All right. So moving on to our next topic on the agenda, the discussion of the DDA administrative support needs and the executive director position. Um, So I think this is kind of our big topic, right? So we've got a job description out there. We've reviewed it, I know. I think next step is, if we're in agreement with that, to move forward with posting it and make sure that we're all comfortable with sort of the scope of responsibilities and job description for that.

Do we have a finalized version? Because I know there's recommendations made by...

Don, and then... Yeah, I need to check with him to see if they've incorporated his recommendations, if y'all are on board with that, to see if we can put it into a final draft form.

Yeah, I think those recommendations are pretty minor, but reasonable. I think the main thing is we just want to know if you have anything else you'd like to talk about, or what you expect that On a part-time basis, reasonably, I think we need to temper our expectations. We've got a big, long list of that job description. I will be curious to see what sort of applicants, if any, we attract. I hope we get something out there. One thing that we should all be aware of is we will not be able to leverage this position for that Main Street designation. Right. because it's not a full-time position, so that's off the table here.

At the current time.

At the current time, yeah.

But we still want that applicant to maybe possess some sort of, or equally able to get the certifications, so that way, future, we don't want to have to, oh, well, you were great time being, but now we need someone who has this criteria.

Yeah, I think the big checkbox is make sure they're comfortable with the grant writing process. Correct. Of course, with events, with Stacy, we want her to, be able to coordinate and help, you know, assist wherever we can there. And then naturally, I mean, for me, the big thing for that person is they're going to liaise between, you know, private business owners in the city, right? How we can most effectively leverage every square foot of downtown for business development. That's, you know, and in turn for the residents of Wyandotte, you know, the more we have this intentionally and carefully planned out and designed downtown, it's directly going to benefit the people that live and work in downtown Windermere. So I think a heavy emphasis through that interview process of that public-private partnership, as we've discussed so much. So I think that's a big part of what they're going to do, and that comes through maintaining those inventories downtown of vacant, underutilized spaces and effectively marketing downtown Linder to people that want to move their businesses in here and hopefully effectively develop some residential development in downtown as well. Did I give you enough to scratch down? Okay. But yeah, we'd love to get that out there and see if we can get some people on the hook. That interview process, I'm curious to I'm assuming DDA would have some part in that. I know it's hired by the city of Winder. Will we have the ability to sit in, maybe have some questions in that interview process? Yeah, that would be great. I know Matthew in particular wants to be a part of that.

Did we clarify in that description, since it is a part-time position, how many hours we were expecting out of this person. We kind of left that a little open-ended. Because I know somebody mentioned, of course, there would be weekend work involved. Right.

We know the budget that's available. We don't know the average, right?

I don't think we ever really clarified. To me, if I'm reading and I'm like, okay, it's a part-time position that's requiring... full-time plus hours. So we probably need to... It's quite an astute observation, Mr. Bradley. That would be my addition to... Yeah.

Yeah, we definitely need to nail that down. What is the threshold for full-time for the city?

Do we know if there's anyone who does this like contractors, private contractors where they might have a couple of cities they work for?

To cover that role as a contractor?

Correct. I haven't looked at that, so I don't know. But I can write that down. Doesn't the city have a grant writer that is contracted?

I know in the past with grants, like you looked at one previously for the historic buildings, and it was someone that you considered hiring as a consultant to do that work. So you could look at that in the future, but you just want to make sure you have a solid plan in mind how many times for them to prepare for that.

I can't remember the name of the group.

I know they had worked with Savannah. But you know what I mean.

So there is that option.

Yeah, and those are typically. Consulting services. Exactly.

Granted.

And those guys typically handle one very specific grant.

So it's very narrow in focus there. That's why I was like, is there someone who actually does that?

And, of course, there's AI available as well for grant writing. Obviously. That can be used. So somebody that knows how to navigate that. Anything else on that post? So you nail down the kind of well-defined what part-time is and the specific hours. I think that's a good point. That's even more of a reason you need to sit on that interview board. All right. I hope no one has anything else. Do I have a motion to adjourn? Motion. And a second? Second. All in favor? All right. Thank you guys all for coming.