01-24-18 DDP Board Meeting Packet

DOWNTOWN DOVER PARTNERSHIP BOARD OF DIRECTORS January 24, 2018 7:30 AM in City Hall Conference Room DRAFT AGENDA as of 17 JAN 2018 1. Agenda Additions/Deletions 2. Approval of Minutes – December 3. Monthly Financial Reports/Budget Update A. DDP Monthly and YTD Budget B. Main Street Dover P&L 4. Dover Police Department Update – Captain Chad Bernat 5. President’s Report A. Plans for new Executive Director Search B. Property and Parking Lot Update 6. Operations & Program Manager Updates A. 2018 DDP Calendar of events and our marketing outreach process to date/Kick-off St. Patrick's Day B. New Monthly Newsletter C. Unlock The Block D. Dinner & Movie-Sponsorship/volunteer efforts E. New Projects on the horizon with Wesley F. DDP Hosting Tourism Talk in March G. Restoring Central Dover Transportation and Green Space Committee & DDP's partnership H. City of Dover TV Channel I. Partnership With United Church for clean-up project prior to Dover Days/History Heritage & Hops 7. Mayor’s Comments – Mayor Robin Christiansen A. First Night 8. Legislative Update – Sen. Brian Bushweller and Rep. Sean Lynn 9. Planning Department & Restoring Central Dover Update – Dave Hugg 10. Committee Reports A. Parking & Safety – Jonathon Street (1st Tues @ 8:00 AM) B. Organization – C. Design – Kristin Pleasanton (2nd Wed @ Noon) D. Economic Development – Mitchell May (3rd Wed @ 7:30 AM) E. Marketing/Promotions – Tonda Parks (1st Thurs @ Noon) F. Merchant Committee – Tom Smith (2nd Wed @ 6:30 PM) 11. Other Updates A. City-wide Economic Development – Dave Hugg B. Wesley College – Robert E. Clark, II C. Bayhealth – John Van Gorp D. Tourism – Wendie Vestfall E. Schwartz Update 12. Public Comments DDP BOARD MTG ~ FEB 28th at 7:30 AM @ City Hall Conference Room

DOWNTOWN DOVER PARTNERSHIP BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING MINUTES December 6, 2017 in City Council Chambers ATTENDANCE: David Anderson, Mayor Christiansen, Anita Evans, Lucy Findlay, Mike Harrington, Dave Hugg, Diane Laird, Maxine Lewis, Mitch May, Donna Mitchell, Gregg Moore, Fred Neil, Todd Stonesifer, Erin Thwaites, John Van Gorp and Wendie Vestfall STAFF: Joan Cote, Tina Bradbury OTHER ATTENDEES: Capt Spicer, Tom Smith Agenda was approved with the month correction on the printed version: 1st John Van Gorp 2nd Mitch May All approved/No Opposition, motion carried October Minutes were presented via previous email and hard copy at the meeting. Dover Police Department Update – Captain Spicer gave an update on the annual crime statistics:  40 Robberies to date which is a 23% decrease and 83% clearance rate  55 Burglaries to date which is a 43% decrease and 60% clearance rate  39 Shooting to date which is a 23% increase and 29% clearance rate  99 Illegal weapons ceased 85 ceased in the City of Dover and 14 ceased outside City limits  Overdose Epidemic on the rise  Additional patrols will be tasked around downtown and shopping centers during the holidays  Cadets have been very busy with special events and 135 Ordinance Violations 30 which were open container violations and 237 businesses contacted  Dover PD just went through the Accreditation Process with Accessor not finding any rule/regulation violations and they feel confident they will receive Accreditation again thanks to great work by everyone in the Department. DDP Financial Report and Main Street Dover DDP Financials included an invoice for $1500.00 sponsorship on the “3 for 300” video package. For some unknown reason our rental income over several months hit within October reporting period. Property Maintenance expenses included additional expenses due from the detailed acronym stenciling in North Street Lot. Interfaith Mission is paid a year in advance so therefore you won’t see any income post monthly for their Forest Street Lease. Main Street Checking was a majority of Farmer’s Market revenue and substantial pay outs to the vendors Gregg Moore asked about the $10,000 with Joan stating that is how the property is listed with the State/County. Dave Hugg agreed that the property even with City tax records is listed that way. Mike Harrington asked if it was every changed with the State of Delaware and no one seemed to know. Bill Hare said DDP would have to file paperwork with the State to change the name on any official records. Gregg also asked that the Main Street Account be updated with specific line items Balance Sheet in the future to see exactly where the revenue and expenditures are brought about by the Farmer’s Market. Tina said the Main Street account is basically a wash with no revenue generated from WIC and there is no line item in our DDP budget for the Farmer’s Market so its difficult to track or run a report because of the 2 different accounts. Gregg stated that we should be using this Main Street Account for Fundraising as well. Motion to approval Financials as presented: 1st Mike Harrington 2nd John Van Gorp All Approved/No Opposition, Motion carried

President Report Strategic Planning is moving forward with another meeting this afternoon with Peggy Geisler. Everyone should have received an email with a link for the survey. Anita reminded everyone to take it and to please push out to your own contacts for feedback and remind them to participate as you would have a closer connection to them. If you would like to have a private meeting or be part of a focus group, please let Joan or Peggy know. Mike Harrington stated he thought it was a very well done and comprehensive survey. Joan is obtaining contact information on the faith based community from Rev Moore & Chanda Jackson (NCALL). Anita asked that Holy Cross be included. North Street Parking Lot is still being dealt with primarily through Phil McGinnis and we are grateful for the positive negotiations with EZ Pass who have been accommodating and wonderful to work with through all the re-arrangements. Executive Director’s Report Joan expressed our desire to have bundling price proposal to on our insurance brokers, Connor Strong (Fawna) and L&W Insurance (Erik) as well as Pfister Insurance (Mel Warren). Due to this notification several of our policies have now come in with significantly lower premiums, $6,176.00 to date. Gregg asked if they all submitted pricing and who was covering which policy. Joan broke them out and said Mel said he couldn’t compete against the bigger firms. Motion needed to pay our total premiums to Connor Strong for $21,846.00 1st Mike Harrington nd 2 Todd Stonesifer All approved/No Opposition, Motion carried Joan had meetings with Col Griffin (436th AW) and BG Carol Timmons (DNG) to explain what DDP and Main Street (Dover) transformation is all about and what we do for the downtown community. I shared how we support their personnel & families through military discounts & farmer’s market, how we would like their participation in our Main Street Committees and how much we appreciate their incredible Volunteer support during our special events. Both Commanders will need to look at how they can possibly get JAG approval for personnel participation in our survey. We also discussed support of the 287th Band for potential future entertainment at the Schwartz Center. Senator Tom Carper is scheduled to visit with some of our downtown Merchants on December 15th and has invited Staff and Executive Committee Members to join him if their schedule permits. Joan has been working closely with Peggy Geisler and her Team to push out the Strategic Plan Stakeholder Survey & set up Focus Group Meetings. So far the survey has gone out to Chamber, Tourism, Modern Maturity Center, Dover AFB, NCALL, Bayhealth, Inner City Cultural League, State Offices & Museums, Board Members, DDP Facebook and Website and will push out this week to various contacts in our Faith Base Community. Workplans for the various Committees are moving along with the great work being done by Maureen. Marketing & Promotion and Economic Revitalization are finishing up their final Parking Study Draft was presented at the last Parking & Safety Meeting. Jonathan isn’t available this morning to give you update but we will push it out once it become available to the public. Joint Chair Meetings with cross communication & collaboration have started and will continue in 2018 to everyone’s benefit! DDP has signed up for “Handshake” which is a web based program that we have been approved to participate in with institutions of higher learning to promote Intern and job opportunities for their student body. To date we have been approved by DSU and UD with Wesley hopefully considering joining in the future. We can streamline our request for Interns once the workplans have been completed and have discussed with Dave Hugg & Julian Swierczek (Planning Dept.) using an Intern to develop the New Business Binder that would include a chronological check list and approval process for opening a new business in downtown along with listing any incentives that might be available. DSU Staff Matt Fortune, Assoc Athletic Director and Ryane Cheatham, Career Coach are very interesting in partnering with us on future projects. DDD application has been posted on our website and Facebook page along with hard copies available in our office. We were informed that we need to be careful how involved we become with promoting the incentive since we ourselves may become applicants in the future. Our Merchant Survey has been included with the S/P survey but will still need to be hand delivered by Joan and Dave Hugg to individual Merchants to get the best feedback and metrics once the updates have been completed to the Façade and Architectural Grant applications. Joan spoke with Herb Konowitz on bringing back SCORE Workshops to Dover/Kent County. Herb said lack of participation a few years ago lead to their cancellation. He said until they consider having them here again, anyone from Dover that signs up for SCORE programs can participate for free by using his name. Diane Laird and Anita gave feedback on the tri-fold for the Membership Drive which Joan has updated and will present again once the workplans have been completed. A spreadsheet of potential donors throughout the region has been

started. DDP and D3 collaborated on a Restoring Central Dover NBBF Grant for First Fridays and were awarded $12,000 which is a $9,000 increase over last year! We are very excited to be joining forces to improve & expand on the past success of First Fridays which will now be year-round. D3 has been selected for Gals That Give Fundraiser in 2018 so DDP should submit an applicant for next year. Joan signed up DDP for State Grant in Aid consideration but will need the finalized workplans to complete a future application. Property Report – McGinnis is working on asbestos removal, so we can demo the building and dumpster issues with RPJ. KCCAA rent is late again for November. EZPass has agreed to move their parking to Loockerman Plaza, so we will work to make sure that’s as easy a transition as possible. Brownfield Revitalization & Rapid Health Impact Assessment has published their initial draft on our 3 parcels (former Chesapeake Supply) if they became some type of Urban Agriculture Business and its impact on the DDD. A copy was emailed to Anita and Mitch for their review. DNREC has requested a list of the crops grown in the Interfaith Garden. Hopefully once they review we will be a step closer to commercial clearance of our property. Joan passed around all the various media coverage we’ve received over the past couple of months. We partnered again for the 2nd year with the Dover Police Department on Safe Trick or Treating which was another great success. Our Home for the Holidays Parade was an enormous hit after being moved for the first time to an evening parade with over 35 participants and 24 Volunteers from Dover AFB. The festive atmosphere and the gathering of the community in Loockerman Plaza was joyful! Special thanks to Ami Leaming and Katie Christiansen for Co-Chairing! Our Annual Holiday Window Decorating Contest is underway today and includes the window painting of the windows on the abandon property across the street from our office by the Dover High Art Club. Kristin Pleasanton (Design Committee Chair), Dawn Fiore (Fiore Design) and Prof Josh Nobiling (Wesley) will be the 3 Judges with financial awards for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. Mayor’s Comments Mayor Christiansen thanked the DDP Staff, Board and Merchants for the positive difference we’ve made in downtown. He also gave his congratulations to everyone involved with the Home for the Holidays Parade from the DDP and the City Employees that work so hard to put these events on together. Mayor wished everyone a happy holiday season. Legislative Update Senator Bushweller said we will have a better idea of the state budget in a few weeks in mid-January. He fully expects the State to shift costs to local governments but hasn’t heard any complaints to date. Please keep in mind if you have concerns to please discuss them with your local Legislators as there are many hot issues coming up in the near future from marijuana legalization, bail reform, criminal justice reform and protection of transgender students and minimum wage. Discussion ensued about tax assessments throughout Delaware. Planning Department Dave said Joan has already covered a few of the items we are working on together with the DDP, but he did brief everyone on the new pilot initiative called “Unlock the Block” where business and property owners can apply to obtain technical assistance and some funding. Planning is conducting a page by page ordinance review with suggested changes going to Council and update of the city website so its much more current and user friendly. There is an agreement being worked on by City, NCALL and Habitat for Humanity on the sale of several properties in the Kirkwood & Queen Street area. Gregg thanked Dave for all his hard work and pushing the Department in the right direction. Councilman Anderson said everyone should make known their wishes if they would like Dave Hugg to stay around! Parking & Safety – Tina stated the meters are bagged until January 4th. Economic Vitality – Mitch said they are working to finalize their workplan with Maureen. Design Committee – Joan said they are working on revamping their façade grant application. They have purchased wreaths and a Santa mailbox for the Plaza. Everyone thought the plaza looked great! Gregg mentioned he would like Joan to look at the 2 missing tree spots for replacement. Kristin came into the meeting and updated us on their application process, upcoming mural project with the Dover Art League and the start of the window contest today. Marketing & Promotion - Tis the Season to be Downtown Campaign is going on and included all our upcoming events. Lucy thanked everyone who worked so hard on all the success of the various holiday events that have happened already this month.

Merchants – Tina brought up the shopping incentive card which has been successful and will include restaurant next year and services the following year. Mike Harrington asked what happened with a study to determine the expenses over revenue with the various parking configuration. Tom explained the incentive card program, military discount program with 38 applicants and how they plan on moving toward on-line marketing over print media. Merchants were very happy with Shop Small Saturday and thought that the amount of people coming downtown deter the bad elements! City Wide – Gregg asked if he could make a formal request to bring the streetscape tree presentation to City Council. Donna Mitchell said she would look into getting his request submitted. Dave Hugg said the economy in Dover is on the upswing and several promising inquiries have been made. Long Horn Steakhouse is building in the parcel in front of the former K-Mart. Cracker Barrel has also started inquiry to coming to Dover. Planet Fitness will be opening in the former Big Lots at the end of the month. Wesley College – We welcomed back Robert Clark from his foot surgery. Wesley is struggling financially as is everyone. Residence Hall was completely refurbished from community support financially and with discounts that should have taken 7 months at $780K+ and accomplished it in less than 3 months for $300+. We re-upped with Aramark and that agreement will provide a $1.6M renovation to our food court that will rival the Mall! We have received a lot of positive comments about the clean up and decorations of our campus which was a comprehensive group effort. We are celebrating our 50th Anniversary of our Nursing Program with our work beginning at the old Dover Library which will be a game changer and critical for the community. We are looking at the renovation of the Old Carriage House into a Dover Museum which would celebrate our heritage and bring an old property back to life. Tim Slavin and Community Leaders are trying to bring back the Schwartz Center and its Board of Directors by Dover Days. Neither Wesley or DSU has the expertise nor staff to run this facility but we are willing to lease it for a $1 per year to a Board that will assume the operations and oversight of the facility. Financial stability will be dependent upon community philanthropic support. Bayhealth – Unfortunately the Opioid Epidemic has had a major impact on their frequency in our Emergency Department and with admissions. We have been working hard with our focus on the transition at our Milford location. They would like to readdress the flooding issues around the hospital with the City. John explained the holiday trees that are displayed in the lobby that are beautiful and raise a few dollars. Tourism – Wendie stated its been a year since the launch of Delaware Quaint Villages Branding which should have a $12.8 M economic impact. We are enjoying a 2.6% increase of hotel occupancy which allows for increase in rates. We have enjoyed a lot of positive media coverage about Kent County with Dover as our Gem with people coming to see us. Our new website has over 100K visits with a majority of the visitors being from DC, Philadelphia and New York with India, China and the UK our International website visitors. We have begun planning for Dover Days into The Green. Public Comments – Kristin told everyone about the Symphony Fundraiser for the Schwartz Center on Dec 14th at 7:30 PM that will be held Central Middle School because of competing event at Dover High. Fred Neil told everyone about the increase in rent which is affecting the Senior population that will adversely impact the local economy and also leaving the State. Councilman Neil would also like to see the Regatta on Silver Lake and make it a hit. Robert Clark mentioned that a Boat House for Rowing Crews would be fantastic too! Anita Evans asked for a motion to go into Executive Session Executive Session – Legal Matters – Pursuant to 29 Del C. §10004(b) (2) – Discuss Personnel, Lawsuits & Contracts