Attendees:

Eric Chabot (EC), David O’Connell (DO), Sukh Brar (SBr), Sara Bergsma (SB), Joe Taglieri (JT), Colin Best (CB),), Miguel Gonsalves (MG), Kristina Tesser Derksen (KTD), Margaret Lara (ML), Cheryl Ciccarelli (CC).

Regrets:

Troy Newton (TN),

EC. called the meeting to order at 6:35 pm.

EC. asked the table if there was any declaration of pecuniary interest or conflict of interest. No declarations were made.

EC. asked the group to review the previous meeting minutes.

• SB noted that there was a spelling error in the minutes: correct Liane Leanne Robertson
• SB moved to accept the minutes as presented. JT seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Treasurer’s Report (presented at meeting).

• MG presented treasurer’s report.
• MG discussed doing a formal report on the year end for once the TOM adjustments are made and will address anticipated surplus.
  • CB asked what TOM staff wanted to do with surplus. CB believes that surplus is required to deal with unexpected expenses and should be kept in reserves.
• CB moved to accept the treasurer’s report DO seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Councillor’s Report:

• KTD:
  • CAO position filled by Andrew Siltala
  • Laurier hosted night at Pasqualino met with councillors to keep momentum going. Working with Conestoga and looking for private funding.
• CB:
  • AMO board discussion – try to merge provincial year end March 31 and Town year end Dec 31 – want to coordinate once and for all
  • Allocation agreements – 8700 units – 35000 people.
  • Currently underway summary see attached
  • Former Restore location is now down – will become a parking lot until t
• SB_moved to accept the Council report as presented. DO seconded the motion. Motion passed.

CC presented the Executive Director’s Report (attached).

• In addition to the items presented in the attachment, the following things were discussed.
  • Event submissions for May to August events are due in the first week of March.
    • CC discussed revamping of the August Sidewalk Sale event to become a multi-cultural event. Options were discussed but BOD eventually decided to cut this event and divert the funds to the HolidayFest event.
      • DO made a motion to eliminate the August Sidewalk Sale event and the funds allocated to that expense to supplement the HoliayFest event. CB seconded the motion. Motion passed.
    • DO also suggested that we add a weekly music event that would feature small groups on Main Street during the summer. The BOD discussed this proposal. KTD suggested tying this in to Milton Concert Band’s Soundsational Summer Series which takes place on the first 4 Thursday evenings in July at Victoria Park. CC will put together notes on a possible event and review at February meeting.
    • EC noted that Starbucks should be approached as they have a target number that must be spent on local sponsorship.
• CC reviewed the Summary results from Tiny Tots 19 and HolidayFest19 with the BOD.
  • HolidayFest19
    • KTD would like to see this become the winter equivalent of the DSMF
    • EC noted that given need for set up/tear down help BIA should investigate paid help for logistics
• CB moved to accept the ED’s report. SB seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Other Business:

CB: Carriage Square Bridge

See email from last minutes

CB suggests that we form a partnership with condo and HDSB with DBIA.

$6K to redo walkway – future costs on 50/50 basis

CB: Would BOD be interested in pursuing this?

TOM not interested in pursuing as there is no easement with Carriage Square.

KTD: What is the feeling at Condo Board? – CB: There is a lot of interest.

Have 90 days as of Nov. presentation to CH BOD.

CB would come back at Feb mtg if there is interest.

KTD is carriage square prepared to allow access? Any concerns from Carriage Square with liability

CB: Yes. Will allow access. No concerns with liability from Carriage Square.

KTD would be interest in learning more in Feb

DO what would proposal be?

CB: HCDSB has a $1/yr for lease and maintains access.

EC Will town allow us to add this or would a separate policy be required? Min. $3K plus insurance?

CB: Investigating Insurance with TOM. Amount correct.

JT: Salt and snow removal by condo? – Would this be in agreement? CB: Yes. They have been doing it and will be in agreement.

JT: $6k maintenance cost?– Was this signed off by engineer? CB Yes. By a contractor and Ernie Snow who is an engineer.

KTD: Conservation Halton owns bridge? CB Yes. It is part of the existing channel.

CB: The province is pushing Conservation Halton to disengage themselves from anything that is not part of their core mandate.

KTD: Conservation Halton would retain ownership of the bridge and we would rent it from them? CB: Yes. We would pay rent for bridge. As long as someone else takes care of liability Conservation Halton would be ok with that.

SB: Would be surprised if passes insurance test.

BOD agreed to have CB return with a proposal in writing at the February BOD meeting.

Adjournment:

• CB moved to adjourn the meeting. DO seconded the motion. Motion passed.
• Meeting ended at 7:35 pm.

Attendees:

Eric Chabot (EC), David O’Connell (DO), Joe Taglieri (JT), Colin Best (CB),), Miguel Gonsalves (MG), Margaret Lara (ML), Troy Newton (TN), Cheryl Ciccarelli (CC).

Regrets:

Kristina Tesser Derksen (KTD), Sara Bergsma (SB), Sukh Brar (SBr),

EC. called the meeting to order at 6:30 pm.

EC. asked the table if there was any declaration of pecuniary interest or conflict of interest. No declarations were made.

EC. asked the group to review the previous meeting minutes.

• CB noted the need to add “the Civic Study recommendations have been implemented” after the last bullet point of his report in the January 2020 Minutes.
• CB made a motion to accept the previous minutes with the noted change. ML seconded this motion. Motion passed.

Treasurer’s Report (presented at meeting).

• MG presented treasurer’s report.
• MG discussed the adjustments made for last year’s flowers contract and advised that a surplus was still realized.
• MG to follow up with TOM re: surplus amount. Anticipates the need to dip into the surplus this year.
• CB moved to accept the treasurer’s report .ML seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Councillor’s Report:

• CB:
  • There will be a public meeting about the TSC building application. The Durante application has been revised to 2 x 18 story buildings and an increased number of units.
  • Town of Milton staff is working on the Strat plan
  • Region is working on a Construction report for 2020
  • Police report that since 1980, crime rates are down in Milton
  • Allocation has been approved for 8700 new unites in the next 5 years.
  • CN development has gone to the Ministry/cabinet for review. Process is expected to take 3-5 years.
  • There is a new tenant at 174 Main Street.
• ML moved to accept the Council report as presented. JT seconded the motion. Motion passed.

CC presented the Executive Director’s Report (attached).

• In addition to the items presented in the attachment, the following things were discussed.
  • CC reviewed plans for a new event – Music On Main to be run during summer 2020. The board approved the proposal and CC to begin seeking participants for this event.
  • CC distributed copies of the most recent member survey results. Attention was drawn to the fact that those businesses who are not directly on Main Street tend to feel left out of BIA initiatives. Discussion occurred about how to be more inclusive. CC discussed plans to:
    • Introduce event signage (A frames) to draw attention to stores off Main Street.
    • Intention to discuss spreading beautification budget out to include Mill, Charles and Mary streets.
    • Planned feature in Discover Downtown Milton Spring and Summer editions with a focus on Mill St., Charles St., Mary Street and Carriage Square
• CB moved to accept the ED’s report. MG seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Other Business:

CB: Carriage Square Bridge

• CB advised that the Condo board has declined the bridge proposal
  • As a result, CB no longer recommends that the BIA support the bridge proposal. CB further reported that only 2 people have discussed bridge concerns with him. Carriage Square is not interest in pursuing this.

Adjournment:

CB moved to adjourn the meeting. EC seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Attendees:

Eric Chabot (EC), David O’Connell (DO), Joe Taglieri (JT), Colin Best (CB), Miguel Gonsalves (MG), Margaret Lara (ML), Kristina Tesser Derksen (KTD), Cheryl Ciccarelli (CC).

Regrets:

Troy Newton (TN), Sara Bergsma (SB), Sukh Brar (SBr),

DO. called the meeting to order at 6:34 pm.

DO asked the table if there was any declaration of pecuniary interest or conflict of interest. No declarations were made.

DO asked the group to review the previous meeting minutes.

CB made a motion to accept the previous minutes with the noted change. MG_ seconded this motion. Motion passed.

Treasurer’s Report (presented at meeting).

• MG presented treasurer’s report.
• $25K spent to date mostly on salaries
• MG and CC met with Accounting to review policies for surplus etc. MG reviewed audit procedure and procedure for determining surplus/deficit for year. BOD agreed no need to have auditors to present to BOD.
• Currently 105K which includes assets of $21K.
• CC explained need for increase in purchasing policy – MG will review and bring a report to the BOD with recommendations. BOD to receive report prior to BOD and vote at next meeting
• MG moved to accept the treasurer’s report. ML seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Councillor’s Report:

KTD:

• KTD meeting with Kristine Scott re: new strategy to deal with events and processes. CC mentioned concerns with moving target.
• Condo Application- second public meeting held – amendment to application so staff to come back with report summer/fall 2020. KTD asked if BIA will be sending some sort of letter of support. CC advised that when application was first made, we told Dennis that we were supportive and encouraged members to attend mtg
• March 24 – Con Halton public info night re: flood plain report – KTD should members be advised?

CB:

• CB reviewed flood plain report – would like mass email for members to get support
• CB provided real estate report
• New regional official plan being reviewed re development for Town and Region
• JT moved to accept the Council report as presented. ML seconded the motion. Motion passed.

CC presented the Executive Director’s Report (attached).

• In addition to the items presented in the attachment, the following things were discussed.
• DMSF – staging and resurfacing
• Covid-19 –
  • BOD discussed Covid-19 and its affect on EE20 – after discussions,
  • DO made a motion to wait until March 18 to determine status of virus and make a determination on cancelling event. CC to evaluate government advice and public opinion to make that decision. KTD seconded the motion. Motion passes.
  • MG moved to accept the ED’s report. ML seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Other Business:

CC noted that Sukh’s business has closed and as a result he has resigned his position on the board. There was a new person who applied for a position on the board. There was a suggestion that she could be invited to next meeting.

JT asked – what is our cut off for deposits. Should we be holding off on entering into contracts until we get a more definite answer on resurfacing and virus.

Adjournment:

• KTD moved to adjourn the meeting. JT seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Attendees:

Eric Chabot (EC), David O’Connell (DO), Joe Taglieri (JT), Colin Best (CB), Miguel Gonsalves (MG), Margaret Lara (ML), Sara Bergsma (SB), Kristina Tesser Derksen (KTD), Cheryl Ciccarelli (CC).

Regrets:

Troy Newton (TN),

EC called the meeting to order at 6:36 pm.

EC asked the table if there was any declaration of pecuniary interest or conflict of interest. NO declarations were made.

EC asked the group to review the previous meeting minutes.

• CB motioned to accept. DO seconded the motion. Motion passed

Treasurer’s Report (presented at meeting).

• MG presented treasurer’s report.
• DO moved to accept the treasurer’s report. SB seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Councillor’s Report:

KTD:

• All covid-`19 much put on hold
• Cons halton cancelled.
• Tom staff in crisis mode – focusing on covid mitigation town hall closed
• Is a hotline: snitch line for violations coordinated effort b/w bylaw and police
• Voted to defer property tax but hope to have people to pay if can
• Sp mtg of council re: more covid mitigation

CB:

• Health Department is the lead agency for Covid-19 in Halton Region – getting daily reports. As of April 8th there were 50 cases in Milton. There is an outbreak in Allendale. Only essential construction is permitted.
• Fluid situation re: programs for relief
• EC: any discussion on when to come back?
  • KTD – There is too much uncertainty as we haven’t reached the point of flattening the curve – were there would be fewer cases than day before. All speculation. Expect little opening in July with continued social distancing
• EC: if this goes to July what is town going to do about vacant businesses/tenants. Expect much to happen in May – real issues in July. (re: business closures). May be able to pay may taxes but beyond is uncertain.
  • KTD: haven’t really had commercial discussions – (I) expect that this maybe on Tuesday agenda for council. Possible action is unclear. This is totally unchartered territory. Not sure how much more is available.
  • EC: Please encourage the town to consider this as commercial properties could use this. Up to 3 yrs ago had rebate on tax – town s/b looking long and hard as this will wipe people out. KTD to take this point to council.
  • CB: looking at this issue from another place ie: education taxes. Looking to provincial for help.
• CB to check with town clerk re: remote meetings
• SB moved to accept the Council report as presented. ML seconded the motion. Motion passed.

CC presented the Executive Director’s Report (attached).

• In addition to the items presented in the attachment, the following things were discussed.
  • Board discussed the feasibility of the Car Show in July and agreed that it would be in the public’s best interest to cancel the event for 2020.
  • Summer Student – BOD discussed whether there would be enough work for a student hired in April/May. It was determined that we do not have enough work for a student currently but depending on when social distancing is lifted, we may have work in August or September. The BOD agreed that we should re-examine the situation closer to that time.
  • Beautification – BOD discussed that the current plan for Spring beautification (soil application, electrical repair and flower installation) be maintained.
  • BIA Member Survey – CC reviewed the results of the recent Member Survey (see below).
    • 72.8% or respondents are closed.
    • Remaining are either working remotely or doing curb side pick up, take out or delivery.
    • Biggest concerns: Rent relief, Cash flow, losing customers
    • What is needed most from the BIA?
      • Promotion of my business on the BIA’s website, in social media and other media – 54.5% (6)
      • Prepare to support my business when the pandemic ends – 45.5% (5)
      • Support with social media – 27.3% (3)
      • Marketing, Promotion and Social Media help – 27.3% (3)
      • Assistance with getting my concerns to the attention of the Town of Milton, our MP or MPP, The Provincial or Federal governments – 27.3% (3)
      • Regular E-newsletters that gather Covid-19 information, webinars and programs in one place – 9.1% (1)
      • No change in services 9.1% (1)
  • CC will share the results with the Town, the MP and MPP.
  • CC shared the results of the OBIAA Covid-19 Survey: Impact to BIA Communities. See link: https://mcusercontent.com/4db9e3e90e782357fee0aa8c7/files/c0f3f9c8-404a-45f2-91e3-4061b8b09fc7/OBIAA_COVID19_IMPACT_TO_BIA_COMMUNITIES_SURVEY_SUMMARY_RESULTS.pdf
  • Budget: CC suggested that the operating budget should be re-examined in light of the changes due to Covid-19. CC to contact Miguel to evaluate.
• CB moved to accept the ED’s report. JT seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Other Business:

• JT driving by at nighttime – there is a lot of presence on streets. Is there an actual routine drive by scheduled? CB to mention to police superintendent.
• SB: Asked for a Chudleigh’s update. CC to ask.

Adjournment:

• ML moved to adjourn the meeting. DO seconded the motion. Motion passed. Meeting adjourned at 7.24pm.

Attendees:

David O’Connell (DO), Joe Taglieri (JT), Colin Best (CB), Miguel Gonsalves (MG), Margaret Lara (ML), Sara Bergsma (SB), Eric Chabot (EC), Kristina Tesser Derksen (KTD), Cheryl Ciccarelli (CC).

Regrets:

Troy Newton (TN),

DO called the meeting to order at 6:38 pm.

DO asked the table if there was any declaration of pecuniary interest or conflict of interest. NO declarations were made.

DO asked the group to review the previous meeting minutes.

• SB motioned to accept. JT seconded the motion. Motion passed

Treasurer’s Report (presented at meeting).

• Treasurer’s report sent by MG
  • CC noted that technology purchase completed before lockdown and able to use laptops to successfully operate remotely
  • Begun looking at budget in light of Covid-19. Will probably not have to dip into reserves. Will bring more detailed report next month.
• CB moved to accept the treasurer’s report. ML seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Councillor’s Report:

KTD:

• Focus continues to be on crisis mitigation – more regular meetings to get updates from staff.
• Attended Chamber of Commerce webinar – more of what’s available to businesses and updates especially on commercial rent relief.
• TOM: Mayor made a point about parks – parks are open but equipment is not.

CB:

• Regional Council meeting with CAO and medical officer of health update – waiting for province to come down with phase 1,2,3 orders and guidelines.
• Town and region closed to July 5 – waiting to see what results are of various Covid tests – looking for spikes.
• Few construction projects Main – Bronte and Commercial street starting May 19
• Some delays for permitting of non essential projects are delayed.

Eric joined meeting.

JT moved to accept the Council report as presented. SB seconded the motion. Motion passed.

CC presented the Executive Director’s Report (attached).

• TOM topped up flower beds in April. Norris completed initial work. Have recommended starting to replace 11 posts that are too low to the ground. Recommend start with 3 posts around Thai House this year as had some issues there last year. Then look at more next year. There is money in the budget for this.
  • SB: asked if we had discussed putting on buildings? CC: Norris put on different posts. With less severe weather this year, didn’t really have a true comparison.
  • No one had objections. So will go ahead with 3 posts this year.
• Julie Speck – The flower shed will begin work week of June 1. Will do some additional work on Charles and Mill St.
• Bought new computers and tech end of February 2020.
• CSJ email received re: changes to position due to Covid19 – CC spoke to Rachel Shuttleworth about position before answering. Might offset marketing/admin person.
• Main Street Construction – details in member newsletter. Begins Tuesday, May 19.
• Office Notes: Mira will continue to work from home until schools return.
• Live Events document from Town – some bias looking at virtual events – does this really do any good for our businesses? Does board want to look into this? EC: thinks it is a waste of time. ML: nice for continuity. KTD: any requests for them? CC: No. Just brought up as other bias are looking into this. Should keep in mind will our members benefit?
  • CB: had request via social media re: having street shut down while maintaining social distancing so would like to investigate how this might happened. Santa Claus parade is looking at contingencies and having and October drop dead date. Want to look into this for next year now while we have the time.
  • CC also relayed info on Farmers’ Market status and concerns about how to host on main street. Looking at Virtual markets.
  • CC to continue to look at best practices as to how we might do events moving forward
• CC discussed Mother’s Day promotion
• CC discussed need to begin looking at website updates re: storefront
  • Committee discussed what it would cost and what changes would be required. DO discussed what would be possible and CC mentioned that $1500 is in budget. DO noted that much would be donated from BANG! He believes that licensing would be covered by this amount.
  • CC to discuss with David what changes are needed and work to make changes.
• KTD motioned to accept report. ML seconded the report. Motion approved.

Other Business:

• ML has cc heard about whether businesses are coming back or closing: CC: haven’t heard anything concrete except from CT Nails with concerns about rent relief. Working on a survey to understand this.
  • Committee discussed the fact that until rent relief program is revised or fully implemented, that we will not have a solid understanding of which businesses will survive.
• EC: has the town talked about doing anything about property tax because not offering full services?
  • Committee discussed importance of a property tax reduction for small business in order to bring some certainty. Councillors agreed bring this up to town.
• DO: asked if there was a need/opportunity for BIA to look at levy relief in light of savings that might be realized from events.
  • Committee discussed repercussions and options. Discussed that this should be reviewed in August when we should have a better understanding on potential of some events for Oct/Dec.

Adjournment:

• ML moved to adjourn the meeting. DO seconded the motion. Motion passed. Meeting adjourned at 7.24pm.

Attendees:

David O’Connell (DO), Joe Taglieri (JT), Colin Best (CB), Miguel Gonsalves (MG), Margaret Lara (ML), Sara Bergsma (SB), Troy Newton (TN), Kristina Tesser Derksen (KTD), Cheryl Ciccarelli (CC).

Regrets:

Eric Chabot (EC),

DO called the meeting to order at 6:36 pm.

DO asked the committee if there was any declaration of pecuniary interest or conflict of interest. NO declarations were made.

DO asked the group to review the previous meeting minutes.

• SB motioned to accept. CB seconded the motion. Motion passed

Treasurer’s Report (presented at meeting).

• Treasurer’s report sent by MG
  • Not received second half of levy transfer yet. Expected within next month.
  • Expenses: story is what is not happening since events did not happen due to Covid-19. Actually, down month over month but consistent with what we expected. For the month of May down about 3k. All in for year about 71k trending as expected.
  • At last meeting there was a request to see how Covid-19 will impact us budget wise. Have looked at where could adjust plans and whether we could use “savings”.
    • Best estimates show expected surplus for the year as about $7k. Board discussed options and determined that we will tentatively take $6,000 from banners and keep it for HolidayFest to boost that budget. This is dependent on whether we are permitted to go ahead with HolidayFest.
• CB moved to accept the treasurer’s report. TN seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Councillor’s Report:

KTD:

• Skate parks and basketball courts open June 6. Signage and Ambassadors posted to provide guidance on social distancing.
• Marriage licences now available by appointment.
• Outdoor dining deferred to CB – staff eager to get approved
• Report to council on June 22nd re: 4 cannabis applications – 3 on Main Street.
• Staff working to have virtual public meetings on applications
• Milton economic recovery task force first meeting held recently
• Budget in works
• MPL started June 5
• Stage 2 expected soon – availability of new drive in entertainment spaces – Dan Chasses looking at doing things – would there be availability of brown street lot?

CB:

• Covid-19 details – Halton.ca – numbers trending down – getting ready for phase 2 would allow us to do extended patios
• Construction going on with regional projects
• Pushing province to do more economic development – watching what’s happening in Ottawa and other areas.
  • TN: when is construction on main street?
  • CC: received email that would begin in July.
  • CB: not a long project – cut and patch type work
• SB: application for 4 cannabis stores – 3 of which would be on Main Street. 2 within bia. Is there a limit to the number of stores allowed? CC: Residents can make concerns known. KTD: at municipal level can only work re: zoning and by law otherwise provincially regulated. KTD said that would pass along info from June 22 meeting.
• SB moved to accept the Council report as presented. ML seconded the motion. Motion passed.

CC presented the Executive Director’s Report (attached).

• Town has announced timeline for budget – call in September with final in December – should begin thinking about this
• CSJ revised timeline in consultation with Rachel – student would be Sept. 14 to Dec. 15 doing database work or event work. CSJ did not receive a second application from AKV’s office.
• Have been working with EcDev and Chamber to pursue the extended patio scenario. Have sent email from Chamber and BIA encouraging that this be done in a timely fashion ie: before given ok. Andrew Siltala said this looks like it will happen.
• TN: did caution that parking space development could be expensive. CC noted that more important part is that the town is to be flexible on what is possible.
• CC: some other bias putting together reopening kits for members. Board thought that this was a good idea. Will develop a pdf kit.
• CB: what is happening with revitalization program. CC: last that I heard from Lee was that they were going ahead with the garbage can program but I will contact to find out about timeline.
• CB motioned to accept report. ML seconded the report. Motion approved.

Other Business:

• SB: Georgetown is running the farmers’ market in downtown core. What happened with ours? Did we hear anything from Chamber? CC: Yes. Were not able to be on Main Street due to the Town’s restrictions on public gatherings which are in place to July 5. SB: why does town have this restriction and not Georgetown? KTD: not sure why Georgetown was allowed to do so. CB: As all town facilities are closed, so are all town streets. More insurance and liability. Hopefully might reopen.

Adjournment:.

• Meeting adjourned at 7:28 pm.

Attendees:

David O’Connell (DO), Joe Taglieri (JT), Colin Best (CB), Miguel Gonsalves (MG), Margaret Lara (ML), Sara Bergsma (SB), Troy Newton (TN), Eric Chabot (EC), Cheryl Ciccarelli (CC).

Regrets:

Kristina Tesser Derksen (KTD),

DO called the meeting to order at 6:35 pm.

DO asked the committee if there was any declaration of pecuniary interest or conflict of interest. NO declarations were made.

DO asked the group to review the previous meeting minutes.

• CB motioned to accept. ML seconded the motion. Motion passed

Treasurer’s Report (presented at meeting).

• Treasurer’s report sent by MG
  • Big news is that we got the second Levy transfer
  • Expenses are pretty much all salary related
  • Total basis for the year we are at $81,000
  • By next meeting should be able to refine revenue projections bases on what is possible. Will then be able to determine whether we need to revise plans for the rest of the year. Should be focus of next meeting. For now all on track.
• CB moved to accept the treasurer’s report. ML seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Councillor’s Report:

CB:

• Speaking for KTD: special council meeting tomorrow re: Covid19 and town recovery report.
  • Motion on the floor that we are looking at a temporary mask bylaw if the region does not do so.
  • New Regional official plan: consultation on settlements, urban growth centres and intensification.
    • CB: would board be interested in hosting a meeting for interested Downtown stakeholders?
    • DO: great idea.
    • CB: Possibly online or social distancing would be in Sept/Oct
    • Board discussed – DO asked Colin to share some more info on this. Will send to CC
• JT moved to accept the Council report as presented. MG seconded the motion. Motion passed.

CC presented the Executive Director’s Report (attached).

• Have awarded prizes for Virtual Canada Day.
• Carly Anderson, Milton Centre for the Arts requests input on possible names for community engagement for Milton’s first culture plan. DO was interested. CC to provide contact to Carly.
• CC discussed interest from Sizzle Street. Discussed next steps with board. Agreed that don’t want to discourage but need to make sure that they understand what is involved and possible costs. CC to continue discussions only. DO encouraged to seek assistance with volunteering on something like dmsf.
• Milton Farmers’ Market – will remain in CHP until at least Sept. 19. Plans are still to return to DTMilton but probably Brown Street lot.
• Construction updates – dates for road closures and daytime construction between July 20-24 between James and Millside. Some temporary parking changes. Paving dates Aug 5-7 overnight 11pm to 6 am Main Street closures.
• CSJ: CC will start hiring process and do initial interviews and RS will sit in on final interviews.
• Social Media Contractor: workload changes due to Covid 19 and budget changes may see changes to the status of the contractor. CC will be meeting with AK next week to discuss.
• DO: question about Restore parking lot not ready? CB: was supposed to be in July but being cautious as contractor has had some issues – expect to be ready sometime in August.
• EC joined the meeting
• CB motioned to accept report. SB seconded the report. Motion approved.

Other Business:

• CB wanted input on mandatory mask bylaw. EC :good idea – gives businesses ability to enforce without getting into arguments. DO: region not making motion until next week but Halton Hills has done so. SB: not in favour of masks but are trying face shields.
  • CB: basically Milton’s would follow what Halton Hills has done. Says this is a temporary by law and anything the region does will supersede ours.
• DO: Extended patios – is there any thought of keeping patios past pandemic? CB: possibility. Deadline is November. TN: patio works now but really no desire to have one permanently. Has helped but realistically, if restaurants are not open soon, will not survive. JT: issue with patios maybe about parking. CB: yes. Meant to be a temporary situation. But town is adding 50 spaces and more people are staying home so could look at this again next year.

Adjournment:

• CB made a motion to adjourn. EC seconded the motion. Motion passed.
• Meeting adjourned at 7:08 pm.

Attendees:

David O’Connell (DO), Joe Taglieri (JT), Colin Best (CB), Miguel Gonsalves (MG), Margaret Lara (ML), Sara Bergsma (SB), Troy Newton (TN), Eric Chabot (EC), Cheryl Ciccarelli (CC).

Regrets:

Kristina Tesser Derksen (KTD)

Attendees:

David O’Connell (DO), Joe Taglieri (JT), Colin Best (CB), Margaret Lara (ML), Eric Chabot (EC), Kristina Tesser Derksen (KTD), Troy Newton (TN), Cheryl Ciccarelli (CC).

Regrets: Miguel Gonsalves (MG), Sara Bergsma (SB),

EC called the meeting to order at 6:34 pm.

EC asked the committee if there was any declaration of pecuniary interest or conflict of interest. NO declarations were made.

EC asked the group to review the previous meeting minutes.

• CB motioned to accept. ML seconded the motion. Motion passed

Treasurer’s Report (presented at meeting).

• Treasurer’s report sent by MG
• CB moved to accept the treasurer’s report. KTD seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Councillor’s Report:

KTD:

• Got several emails/calls re: Main St Construction. KTD did social posts to explain that construction was required to upkeep these assets. Now that it is done, all good.
• Town Hall still closed. Covid task force has plan to return to work safely. Events starting to come together.
• Indoor Regional mask by-law passed. Some ambiguity but working to resolve.

CB:

• Halton Region Official plan possible presentation at BIA meeting Sept. 16
• Regional construction work underway on Tremaine Road, Downtown Milton Heights open, North of 3rd side road and sewer work on Bronte St. N authorized by Council.
• Town Hall opening partially next week for bill payments.
• More info coming soon regarding capital budgets for Town and Region. Look to Aug. 24 meeting.
• ML moved to accept the Council report as presented. DO seconded the motion. Motion passed.

CC presented the Executive Director’s Report (attached).

• Completed first interviews for CSJ position. Final selection soon.
• RS to be back in the office Sept. 9 part time. CC’s last day is Sept. 18.
• Fall 2020 Discover Guide to be emailed to Consumer List on Aug. 21. Good opportunity to remind public that we are still here, patios are open and we are employing all Covid-19 protocols.
• Construction crews did some damage to a few tree bed plantings. CC worked with Contractor/Subcontractor and landscaper to fix this.
• See ED’s notes for a list of Businesses that have opened/closed.
• Main Street construction to be finished this Friday. Sealing should happen next year.
• Events:
  • Sizzle Street still interested but will attempt again next year.
  • Mira to take FEO risk course
• Farmers’ Market will probably move to Fairgrounds due to issues with finding hydro at Brown Street Lot.
• Halton Region Plan meeting could be on same day as our next meeting. Would need to move our meeting to Sept. 16. Location tba. CB will look into booking this at Town Hall. CC will research St Paul’s. BOD members said that we should do this on Sept. 16 and make that our BOD meeting.
  • CB noted that presentation would focus on how this plan would focus on downtown Milton. Will highlight downtown area and mature neighbourhoods. Must conform with provincial policies looking at urban growth centres and preserving downtowns etc. Expect to process to take another two years.
• CC reviewed thoughts on virtual Tiny Tots.
  • EC does not like virtual events. In his area they are doing a lot of virtual drive through type events. KTD also does not like virtual events and asked if other BIAs have done this. ICC is doing drive in concerts. As don’t believe that virtual events drive traffic to stores.
  • CC cautioned that new Town restrictions on events may not allow for live events.
  • TN asked who will pay for this? CC noted that members pay for treats. TN responded that we’d have to fund the entire event as they have just lost so much revenue via Covid and construction. EC said we could just cancel the event entirely.
  • CB noted that the Santa Claus parade was shut down when received precautions required by the Medical officer of Health. They basically shut them down because they would have had to guaranteed that:
    • Everyone sanitized
    • Everyone remained be 6 feet apart
    • No candy being handed out.
  • EC and TN agreed that this made our event unreasonable. CB did not recommend hosting this event. BOD said perhaps best not to do anything for Tiny Tots.
  • EC did recognize there may be an opportunity to do something smaller for Halloween.
  • Arts Milton sent proposal for Culture Days. CC discussed with BOD and asked if any interest to pursue. BOD discussed and decided that the BIA cannot support financially but could reach out to Members to see if interested.
• CB motioned to accept report. KTD seconded the report. Motion approved.

Other Business:

• No other business was brought up.

Adjournment:

• KTD made a motion to adjourn. CB seconded the motion. Motion passed.
• Meeting adjourned at 7:03 pm.

Attendees:

David O’Connell (DO), Joe Taglieri (JT), Colin Best (CB), Margaret Lara (ML), Eric Chabot (EC), Kristina Tesser Derksen (KTD), Troy Newton (TN), Miguel Gonsalves (MG), Sara Bergsma (SB), Rachel Shuttleworth (RS)

Regrets: Cheryl Ciccarelli (CC)

EC called the meeting to order at 6:34 pm.

EC asked the committee if there was any declaration of pecuniary interest or conflict of interest. NO declarations were made.

EC asked the group to review the previous meeting minutes.

• SB motioned to accept. CB seconded the motion. Motion passed

Treasurer’s Report (presented at meeting).

• Treasurer’s report sent by MG
• Operating costs holding steady, not much spending elsewhere in budget due to shutdown
• Revenues limited to levy, no sponsorship coming in
• Projecting a surplus of $56k if everything stays the way they have been (no events)
• RS asked about the projection that $15k would be coming in by sponsorship. MG said that was the projection at the of COVID, but now we see it likely won’t materialize. Surplus will likely be larger than we anticipated at the beginning of COVID.
• TN moved to accept the treasurer’s report. CB seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Councillor’s Report

CB (Regional):

• Regional Council voted down Burlington’s request for funding for a grant program giving $2,500 to businesses for COVID expenses. The reasoning was that the Municipal Act prohibits bonusing (section 106) and also the program only helps a small number of businesses, so many councillors did not feel they could support the motion (but it got support from Burlington councillors and their mayor).
• Increased masking regulations in common areas in condominiums – see COVID-19 page on Halton Region website for details.
• Region going through Official Plan meetings (have one tomorrow night at 7pm – Natural Heritage and Agriculture areas), will be coming back to Council later this year with some growth concepts, hopefully to be approved next year.
• Go to Milton.ca to find out about the Town’s official planning process. Consultations are underway, and the plan needs to conform with province and region.

KTD:

• Official plan process underway, staff is looking for comments from various stakeholders.
• DMBIA hasn’t submitted comments yet but might be useful to hear from members on this – could collect comments and give to staff for them to take into consideration (what would members like to see downtown, land uses, policies, etc)
• Cultural project underway – looking to establish and define a culture for Milton. Events underway around town, one was at Sports Center this weekend where staff have people engage in art projects to help define what Milton means. Opportunity for membership to have their say and discuss ‘old Milton culture’, heritage buildings, entrepreneurial stories, etc.
• Construction underway on Bronte Street will be going until December and some elements will continue after that. Main Street construction is complete for now (that project caused a lot of grief for our businesses, restaurants as they reopened from lockdown). In the spring they will do the final coating on the road but it will just take a day.
• Town Hall is open again (10am-3pm).
• New garbage cans in place in some spots. DO said there should be a focus back on cleaning up Mary and Mill Street now that those garbage cans are in.
• DO moved to accept the Council report as presented. SB seconded the motion. Motion passed.

RS presented the Executive Director’s Report (attached).

Annual General Meeting

• RS and MG to begin working on 2021 budget, planning to bring to board at the next meeting.
• Move October board meeting to October 7, hold AGM the following week (likely October 14).
• At AGM, invite a Regional representative to present the Regional Official plan as it relates to Downtown Milton, give members and the community an opportunity to provide input into the plan.

2021 Budget considerations

• Town is more risk averse than province when it comes to hosting events, etc.
• COVID numbers are increasing. If that continues, we won’t have face-to-face events
• Budget is a living document and we will need to be adaptable since our situation is ever-changing
• MG said last year, we made investments in salary and planned to continue to do that. We have previously kept the levy fixed at 3.5 % and we need to consider whether there will be a levy increase this year. Anticipating that 30% of levy will go to surplus this year.
• EC said don’t want to shrink budget because eventually we will be opening up and will need funds to be able to do our activities as usual. Recommending keeping budget similar but hold on to extra funds and use those so we are ready to go as soon as things open up. Once there is a vaccine everyone is going to be competing for attention to get people to come back. We need money and a plan in place. We will need to continue to expand allocation to human resources because good people drive us. Once the job market opens up again there will inflationary pressures on wages and we are currently behind on wages. Summary: Two areas of focus should be 1. Staffing. 2. Having money to do something big once things open up (big capital project, fancy marketing campaign, event).
• RS – initial thoughts: Consider whether to do a levy increase this year, since it is a challenging year for businesses and the optics of an increase could be negative. Three areas we could focus on: 1. Human resources to help keep our wages as competitive as possible and to keep good people. 2. Banners (consider whether to do those in 2020, 2021 or half and half). 3. Flowers – Flower Shed has been fantastic and very responsive. We need sufficient funding to be able to continue working with them.
• KTD – Participated in a Chamber board meeting this morning and there they decided, because of the optics of it, they don’t want to increase their membership fees this year and add an additional burden to members. Chamber has more money than us but we do need to consider that. Agree with keeping levy increase low, but need to make sure we still have enough flexibility to do some activities, and we need to be ready to move once things open up. Italian Canadian Club just did a drive-in concert series. Once things open up we need to be ready to move forward.
• DO – Concern on the optics of raising the levy, but we need to make sure we can open up strong once we open. I would like to see banners done. Let’s clear out the low-laying fruit that we haven’t done yet while the events are not happening. We could try for a low increase on the levy, and spend more on beautification for now.
• MG – We are going into the new year with $171,000 cash.

Tiny Tots

• RS suggested to do a scavenger hunt and activities over a two-week period.
• A good way to engage members in something, participation is easy and optional for them, and provides a way to attract people downtown safely.
• There may be some sponsorship opportunities for external businesses and our members
• We could incorporate a charitable component into the event.
• DO motioned to move forward with scavenger hunt, CB seconded. Motion passed.

Other Business

• CB suggested a movie drive-in in the Brown street parking lot and has a contact for the screen.
• EC suggested connecting with the churches to use their SOCAN permission (they do that in Sauble Beach for events).
• KTD said to talk to Rosanna at the Italian Club because they have done those events three times.
• We might be able to do a projector style.
• Could generate interest for businesses. Italian Club had people delivering food by golf cart. Rachel to connect with Rosanna.

Adjournment:

• CB made a motion to adjourn. DO seconded the motion. Motion passed.
• Meeting adjourned at 7:07 pm.

Attendees: David O’Connell (DO), Joe Taglieri (JT), Colin Best (CB), Eric Chabot (EC), Kristina Tesser Derksen (KTD), Troy Newton (TN), Miguel Gonsalves (MG), Rachel Shuttleworth (RS)

Regrets: Margaret Lara (ML), Sara Bergsma (SB)

DO called the meeting to order at 6:36 pm.

DO asked the committee if there was any declaration of pecuniary interest or conflict of interest. No declarations were made.

DO asked the group to review the previous meeting minutes.

• TN motioned to accept. MG seconded the motion. Motion passed

Treasurer’s Report – MG

• The only big variance from last month was $20k for landscaping expense that came through.
• Average monthly expenses for the last few months have been around $13k-$15k and are expected to continue at that level.
• Revised our budget due to COVID, and are generally on track with the revised budget.
• Projected carry-forward for the rest of the year is around $42k.
• CB moved to accept the Treasurer’s Report. TN seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Council Reports

KTD (Local)

• Construction now underway on pedestrian tunnel on Main St at Bronte.
• Bronte St towards Steeles will be under construction until mid-December.
• Culture Plan – Overview and information on the plan available on Town website. Currently asking residents about their cultural experiences in Milton to see where we should be investing in our cultural story.

CB (Regional):

• Regional Official Plan Review – Visit halton.ca/ropr to see reports related to the plan, open for comments from the public until end of October. Statutory meeting happening on November 19 to go over the next phase and narrow down options for growth. There are five growth areas in Milton and two in Halton Hills. In Milton, the areas are all to the south and east of downtown.
• Work on Tremaine Road overpass has started – channeling creeks, putting in storm water ponds, diverting Peru Road over to the new Tremaine & Third Side Road.
• EC moved to accept the Council Reports. JT seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Executive Director’s Report

Proposed 2021 budget

MG

• Since last year our budget increased significantly (from $266k to $308), COVID happened and we adjusted budget down to $239k. Uncertain times – puts pressure on revenues. We are not hosting events so no sponsorship is coming in.
• Whether it could be harder to increase the levy in the future if we don’t continue with consistent increase – kept levy at same rate as in 2020. Optics of a levy increase this year is important to think about for the new budget.
• Highlights of proposed 2021 budget:
• Increasing investment in staffing
• Added an additional $10k to our events on top of the recent net spending we put into them
• Levy revenue is marginally increased, no other revenue expected
• Net shortfall of $30k and our surplus account can absorb that. If we are able to secure any sponsorship, the drawdown from our reserve would be less

RS

• Shift in social media process in recent months, more efficient to have staff in office handle social media. Salary line increasing from $113k to $125k, moving dollars from the Contracts, plus some additional investment (approximately $5k). Contractor to focus on photography.
• Projecting a higher amount for tax levy rebates and write-offs due to increase in business turn-over and the impact of COVID. Small decrease in advertising dollars – focus more on online advertising. Once things open up, will have money we did not spend on previous events to run a ‘back to business’ event or campaign. Discussed Street Festival with Town and will explore whether to run it virtually. Heard feedback from BIAs who kept levies steady/very low on the challenges with staff retention, running events, rising costs, etc. Recommend replacing banners in 2020, not 2021.

Discussion

• DO – Increase in the salary line is coming from the Contracts line with some new dollars. We are not getting revenue outside levy this year but still need to do things. Need to be prepared to come back strong once things reopen.
• JT – Levy increase is a total of $8k total across all the properties which is not a big number, but is this increase average for BIAs and how does our levy rate compare to other BIAs. Have received questions about the levy increase from the community – important to hear it allows us to better retain staff and keep up with rising expenses. Our property values are not the highest or the lowest in the area, and need to ensure our levy remains on par with others. The average lease on Main St. has a 2% annual or 3% biannual rent increase. The levy increase is higher. Need to be able to communicate our value.
• RS – I have heard from other BIAs through provincial OBIAA calls. Many BIAs doing levy increases this year but not all. I have seen a comparison of levy rates for some BIAs outside the GTHA and our rate appears to be on par.
• EC – Have increased the levy by 3.5% for several years. Inflation typically around 2% and for a lot of years before that we did not increase levy – hard to retain staff and had high turn-over. Had to accelerate beyond the rate that costs escalated to catch up. Commitment in recent years to use the levy increase to invest in good staff. Levy increase works out to around $80-$100 per building. This is a time that we need the BIA because we need people advocating for and driving people downtown.
• KTD moved to accept the budget. TN seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Staffing

• RS – Coordinator has requested a pay increase – doing events, communications and marketing. Joined the BIA in November 2019 and doing a great job. Cheryl recommended giving her a pay increase before CC’s departure. Could raise from $42,000 to $45,000 after a year.
• DO – The board has passed the 2021 budget and the ED should determine how the staffing dollars will be allocated among individual staff members. EC – Board is supportive, no motion needed outside of 2021 budget.

Banners

• RS recommended redesigning banners in 2020 (vinyl banners on street poles), the total cost would be around $10k-$12k. With no large events in the works, good time to invest in beautification.
• Going forward, we need to ensure there is as some money in the budget for banner maintenance.
• MG – This will reduce our expected surplus for 2020.
• JT – Recommendation to also look at other larger projects, like a crosswalk at Main and Millside.
• Board supports the idea of replacing banners, RS to get quotes for the project.

Holiday Drive-in

• Exploring ways we can host a drive-in event in the Brown St. parking lots for the Holidays (40’ screen, FM transmission, participants stay in their cars). This likely works under the current COVID rules. Could accommodate around 60 cars in the lots (expect 2-5 people per car).
• Received quote from one screen vendor, will be reaching out to other vendors as well.
• We would need volunteers, we could add a charitable component, could charge an entry fee, could look at how to engage our restaurants so people can do take-out and eat in their cars.
• Italian Club hosted drive-in concerts this summer and have shared lots of insights with us.
• Base cost for the event is expected to be around $6,000 (screen, marketing, supplies, etc.), but additional sanitation and security requirements would put the total cost for the event higher.

Discussion

• MG – There could be lots of risk associated with the event. Would need to work closely with Public Health and the Town on that.
• DO – Would need to offer washrooms for people, and look at requirements around cleaning and sanitation. Also, consider opportunities to engage businesses by offering give-aways to participants.
• EC – In Sauble Beach, porta-potties needed hand sanitizers and they were emptied as usual. Public Health wanted porta-potties six feet apart for social distancing. Find out from Public Health what the requirements are for Halton.
• RS – We would need to have a handwashing station, and may have to have a dedicated staff/volunteer managing the flow of people at porta-potties, and making sure people stay inside cars. Movie license included with price of screen vendor.
• JT – We would need to find out who would cover snow removal and how that process would work.
• TN – May not have a large impact on sales for all downtown restaurants. Could help those restaurants that are closest to the parking lot. However, events like this help drive people downtown and that provides exposure for businesses.
• KTD – The event would give people a chance to do something unique and novel downtown – it is appealing to be able to sit in the car and watch a money. Main St. would remain open which is good.

Digital Main Street Future Proof

• There are funding opportunities through Haltech to support main street businesses through community collaboration projects (tech-focused or not). We have discussed various project options with them. Projects would start November/December and this is an opportunity to pilot something over a four-month period. They are seeking projects that can be used as a model to help other municipalities.
• Seeking board feedback on these project ideas:
• Website redesign – improve navigation, add different components of the site, consider an e-commerce platform for our businesses
• Expanding/enhancing wifi – get additional access points, and/or adding new functionality
• Interactive screens on the street showing maps, marketing content and other information
• Raise garden beds – provides visual appeal, protects our receptacles, offers secondary seating for people waiting outside stores

Discussion

• DO – We costed out digital screens in the past but we did not have wifi then so we could not move forward. We know what changes need to be made to the website and can do that ourselves.
• EC – We need shovel-ready projects such as digital screens (we received quotes in the past) and the expansion of the wifi network. For the flower beds, we could hire a contractor to do that work pretty easily, and could use materials that make it easy to fix if it gets hit by a snowplow.
• JT – Flower bed would look nice and help protect our investment in the receptacles. We could do some beds but not all of them if needed.
• RS to explore the following projects further: Raised flower beds, digital screens, wifi
• EC moved to accept ED Report, CB seconded the motion. Motion passed

New business

• CB – Province just introducing the Main Street Recovery Act which would provide grants for businesses to buy PPE. RS to look into the program further and send information to members.

Adjournment:

• KTD moved to adjourn. EC seconded the motion. Motion passed.
• Meeting adjourned at 7:46 pm.

Attendees: David O’Connell (DO), Colin Best (CB), Troy Newton (TN), Kristina Tesser Derksen (KTD), Miguel Gonsalves (MG), Margaret Lara (ML), Sara Bergsma (SB), Eric Chabot (EC), Rachel Shuttleworth (RS)

Regrets: Joe Taglieri (JT)

Guest: Charles Gibbs

DO called the meeting to order at 6:36 pm.

DO asked the committee if there was any declaration of pecuniary interest or conflict of interest. No declarations were made.

DO asked the group to review the previous meeting minutes.

• CB motioned to accept. ML seconded the motion. Motion passed

Treasurer’s Report – MG

• General expenses (majority of which are salaries) are $13,000 for the month, additional $10,000 landscaping charge came through so total expenses for the month were $23,000
• YTD we have incurred about $163,000 in expenses, trending as expected
• Projected expenses between now and the end of the year: $46,000
  • Banners – $10,000
  • Salaries – $26,000
  • Outdoor holiday event – $10,000
• Projected surplus to be carried into 2021: minimum $23,000
• CB moved to accept the Treasurer’s Report. SB seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Council Reports

KTD (Local)

• Recent meeting with new fire chief, he will be creating a new fire master plan, KTD will bring an update to the board on that once it’s ready
• Bronte St now reopened, but still some construction work is still underway, hopefully there will a bit less traffic congestion downtown now that cars can get around the area more easily
• Town currently under certain COVID protection measures for high risk settings, but some restrictions are being loosened – ie around fitness classes, hockey games and scrimmages, etc.
• Pedestrian tunnel at Main and Bronte is under construction, night work underway. Project will be done at the end of fall next year

CB (Regional):

• Announcement taking place tomorrow on availability of rural internet for shopping. This will be helpful for businesses selling and marketing online
• Region is monitoring the health situation. Go to halton.ca for daily updates (yellow banners at the top of the page). It is concerning seeing the COVID numbers rise in Toronto and Peel
• Meeting next week for the Regional Official Plan. Next step is to review and assemble the feedback from the community around the plan and the direction they want our region to take for the next 25 years. Will be discussing options for potential areas for growth in Milton and other communities.
• DO – People from Toronto, Peel, etc are coming into Halton because our businesses are open. What is the region’s perspective on that?
• CB – Encouraging all businesses to follow and enforce COVID rules around contact tracing, mask-wearing, social distancing, etc.
• ML moved to accept the Council Reports. SB seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Executive Director’s Report

Temporary extended patios

• BIA and Chamber submitted joint request to have the temporary patio program extended
• Town agreed to extend temporary patios on public property to December 31. Patios on public property still had to close by end of October
• Town currently exploring ways to extend deadlines into October 2021 for patio program

Halloween Takeover

• A successful activity, gained lots of new social media followers and generated engagement on online and in the community, videos from local business owners were popular, great feedback on the scavenger hunt and parents and kids appreciated the opportunity to do something fun for Halloween
• A bit time-consuming to organize because it was something new for us, but we have a template now that could be used in the future for this type of activity

Drive-in to the Holidays

• Event to take place Saturday, December 5
• Logistics coordination underway
• Beginning outreach to sponsors this week
• Secured a screen vendor and signing off on final details
• Planning to do a small road closure on Mary St behind the parking lot so we can move the screen back and accommodate another 10-15 cars in the parking lot
• Considering showing either Home Alone or the Grinch (2018 animated version)

Filming in Downtown Milton

• Filming taking place next week in various locations in Downtown Milton, lasting six days.
• Yogurty’s has a new wall being built in front of it. Other changes to store signs, etc in downtown
• Anticipating there will be some push-back from some members, especially in that closed off area. Sony said road closure will be intermittent and will work hard to ensure business owners and their customers can access businesses at all times as long as it’s safe to do so.
• We are talking to Sony/Location Manager about making a financial contribution to the BIA to support a legacy project for our community. We have suggested that they contribute to our banner project because it is something that beautifies the whole community and provides a benefit to all the businesses.

Banners

• (Showed the Board the two banner design concepts.)
• Would like to have to have design finalized next week so we can send for print and have Sony help install banners after the filming. Sony has taken at least half the banners down already.
• Concept 1 – Graphical representation of things that can be done downtown
• Concept 2 – Photographic representation of different areas of downtown
• SB – Concept 2 – Like the lettering and simplicity. Website and ‘Downtown Milton’ words might be too close together, too repetitive. Unsure how it will look in the day when the sun is on it, might look washed out. Concept 1 – A bit juvenile and don’t like the font for ‘Milton’. Recommend including colour since we don’t have a lot of colour half the year.
• RS – Concept 2 – Could ask designer to show more details in the buildings, etc. We provided designer with examples of banners from other communities as a starting point
• KTD – Cambridge banners are metal, not cloth. They are a blend of these two designs – they have stylized representations of recognizable places in the area. Will share some photos
• RS – Would have a series – maybe three. Could keep the same image and use different colours, or change the colours and the images, etc. Can feature different parts of downtown – ie Clock Tower, Mill Pond and Knox or Thompson House
• DO – Concept 2 is better. Recommendation to print colours darker so we get more time out of the banners before they fade. Try more stylization of the images, simplify the lines and expand on the details. It’s a great effect. Can play with the posterization and contrast so we see more details. Could use full colour photographs. Doesn’t have to be just two colours.
• CG – Lots of negative space, could crop so there is less empty space. Option on the left is tilted.
• RS – Will take this feedback back to the designer and share updated version with the board before we go to print.
• MG – What’s the theme we are trying to promote?
• RS – In our research, we found some common approaches in other communities are either graphically representing elements of the downtown (like in Concept 1, Burlington did something similar) or using photos or images of a specific important element/view of the neighbourhood.
• RS – Options for printing: regular vinyl (18oz), likely around $6,300 with tax, or reinforced vinyl (20oz), around $8,200 with tax. Don’t know how much longer the lifespan is for reinforced vinyl. If we do the regular vinyl, we should plan to replace banners more regularly. Reinforced vinyl would put us beyond the $10k budget for this project.
• DO – Depends how long we intend to keep the banners up. All vinyl banner will fade over time, and eventually rip. Need to order some extras to replace broken ones. If we want to commit to changing banners every three years or so, regular vinyl (18oz) will be fine. If we want to keep these for 5+ years, we should do the reinforced (20oz) vinyl.
• DO – Considered creating a sponsorship program in the past, could look at that for the future.
• RS – Ideal to get banners done in 2020 because we don’t have it in the 2021 project. We have suggested to Sony that they could cover, or at least contribute to, our $10,000 banner replacement project. Sony is considering this. Alternatively, they may want to divide dollars up and do small cash donations (ie $100?) to each business. I haven’t heard back on what they want to do. Have spoken to other BIAs that received financial donation from film production companies – Burlington, Blue Mountain, etc.
• DO – Size of financial contribution depends on size of production companies. If we want filming to come back to our community, need to make it easy for them to work here.
• RS – Hoping for some economic benefit for businesses for filming. We have encouraged the production companies to use our restaurants, shops, etc. They have union contracts they need to comply with which limits them in terms of using local catering. But hopefully with 100-200 crew and actors downtown, there will be business generated for local businesses naturally. There is lots of chatter on social media right now about the filming so hopefully that translates into revenue for our businesses as well. Chamber floated the idea of a partnership to promote Milton as a filming destination to production companies. Could be an opportunity for revenue and exposure for businesses. It is a lot of work helping with film coordination (connecting them with businesses, contractors, etc.). RS to email banner design to board prior to printing. Sounds like regular vinyl is ok for our purposes.

Digital Main Street: Digital Service Squad

• Receiving $18,132 in funding through Digital Main Street Ontario to run the project (covers DSS member wages, technology, marketing, supplies, etc.). November 2020 to February 2021. Hired one DSS member full-time and one part-time.
• Goal is to connect with 72 businesses through the program. For those interested in working with us, DSS members can conduct a digital assessment of their business, help them apply for the $2,500 grant (deadline November 30, 2020), connect them with learning resources, help them activate and access digital marketing tools to support their businesses, etc.
• Eligible businesses include BIA members and other small businesses in designated commercial core with less than 10 employees (less than 25 for restaurants), needs a storefront, no franchises.
• Milton Economic Development contributing $6,000 to support administration and project management by our office.
• Outreach began to our businesses last week to do digital assessments and help them apply for the grant. Feedback to date has been extremely positive.
• Focusing our outreach on BIA businesses but if businesses outside the BIA and still in the central business district want to work with us, we will support them as well.
• We are receiving lots requests from businesses for us to work with them.

Digital Main Street: Future Proof

• Haltech offering $5,000-$25,000 grants for collaborative projects piloting scalable solutions that address challenges faced by main street businesses (total available is $50,000).
• Proposal from a local marketing and technology company to partner with us on a multi-week wintertime outdoor dining event to support local businesses. Event features pods where people can dine with others from their households or bubbles, get food from local restaurants. May also include music, giveaways, activations, displays from local businesses, etc.
• Organizers want to work with only BIA restaurants if possible. Restaurants would need to have a few menu items available, would receive take-out orders in advance and provide take-out items to event at specific date/time. Support they are requesting from BIA: Engaging restaurants, promotions.
• They have several things to sort out related to Public Health requirements. They could fit a few dozen pods in the parking lots at Main St & Brown St. Exact number TBD. Would do multiple seatings. Organizers are hoping to get corporate sponsorship to help pay for the pods.
• KTD – Uncorked restaurant in Georgetown just posted about their three pods.
• TN – I think it’s worth trying the event. Not sure how people will feel about dining outdoors in the winter, but this is something unique and interesting to try. Organizers would need to figure out how to keep food hot when it’s going from the restaurant to the pod. Easier to serve hot food when serving out front of your own restaurants so some logistics need to be sorted out. Likely this would be popular for higher end restaurants.
• SB – Lots of support in the community for events and activities downtown. Would need to get enough restaurants on board to make it a draw for the general public.
• RS – Will ask what they plan to do related to alcohol. Restaurant would receive a message with their orders. Ideally the restaurants would know their orders well in advance and can plan.
• DO – Explore if it makes sense to spread the pods out, close some of Main Street.
• TN – If you want music or alcohol, pods would all have to be in one space. Restaurants don’t generally have spare staff to be able to run food down the road to the event.
• DO – We support the event. Some questions need to be answered still, and we can help point organizers in the right direction. Board supports a partnership with these organizers to help make the event happen.
• CB moved to accept ED Report, SB seconded the motion. Motion passed

New business

• KTD now a board member of the Towsend Smith Foundation, and Chair of their Fundraising committee. Will be a ramp up in fundraising and campaign starting soon

Adjournment:

• CB moved to adjourn. ML seconded the motion. Motion passed.
• Meeting adjourned at 7:44 pm.

Attendees: David O’Connell (DO), Colin Best (CB), Joe Taglieri (JT), Kristina Tesser Derksen (KTD), Miguel Gonsalves (MG), Margaret Lara (ML), Eric Chabot (EC), Rachel Shuttleworth (RS)

Regrets: Sara Bergsma (SB), Troy Newton (TN)

EC called the meeting to order at 6:37 pm.

EC asked the committee if there was any declaration of pecuniary interest or conflict of interest. No declarations were made.

EC asked the group to review the previous meeting minutes.

CB motioned to accept. JT seconded the motion. Motion passed

Treasurer’s Report – MG

• Ending the year on a good note.
• Sony donation towards the banners as a legacy project came through.
• $18k in revenue from Digital Service Squad grant received.
• Monthly expenses trended as normal, most were operational costs.
• Expecting net expenses of $19k for month of December (takes into account $4k outstanding from CSJ and $6k from Milton Economic Development).
• Projected surplus is around $36k (up from the $23k we anticipated as of last month – largely due to Sony donation).
• CB moved to accept the Treasurer’s Report. ML seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Council Reports

KTD (Local)

• Passed the budget unanimously on Monday night. Local portion of tax increase is 3.93% (works out to $14.16 per $100k of assessed property value annually).
• Town of Milton joined on to Partners for Climate Protection – a targeted national network of municipalities. TOM will now establish emissions targets and other goals for environmental protection and sustainability.
• Staff report coming forward on 14th with respect to MEV. In there, staff requesting a Ministerial Zoning Order (MZO) to expedite the project. Province taking heat recently related to MZOs.

CB (Regional):

• 1.8% percent tax increase for the Region.
• Public consultations in January and February for the Regional Official Plan.
• Implementing more rural internet, hopefully it will have a positive impact for small business.
• Vaccine – we may not see full implementation of vaccines until September. COVID-19 numbers currently going down in Halton Region, but going up in the Province.

Discussion

• KTD – Any information from the Region on how the vaccine role out will go?
• CB – Not much info at the Region right now. But in meeting with large city mayors, General Hillier indicated it will go to seniors, LTC staff and front-line workers first, and everyone else later. Halton.ca is a good place to get updates.
• EC – MZO applies to us because we aren’t in the greenbelt. Would need to appeal to a Minister and they can then decide whether or not to supersede the zoning rules?
• CB – MZO circumvents the usual process of appealing to LPAT and various other agencies. There is an additional allocation Town could reserve for it. A bit controversial because it circumvents the usual planning process.
• EC – More controversial in greenfield development, not so much in brownfield areas like ours.
• KTD – Can override the municipal process, and the involvement of other agencies. Makes sense for MEV. Province has clear guidelines on when they can be used, and favours instances with an economic development focus.
• CB – Heard from AMO that Provincial Floodplain Advisory Board advising not to do anything in the floodplain.
• JT moved to accept the Council Reports. ML seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Executive Director’s Report

Purchasing Policy

• Recommending an update to the purchasing policy to increase the threshold for going to RFP/RFQ or bidding from $10,000 to $25,000. Town updated their policy in 2018 for this.
• From the DMBIA Purchasing Policy (page 1):
  • Purchasing Limits
    • Where the requirement for goods, services or construction can be specified and it is estimated that the total annual value is less than $10,000 (change to $25,000), including taxes and freight, and not included in any existing contract and/or blanket order, the good/service shall be acquired directly by the end user.
  • Request for Quotation/Proposal
    • Where it is estimated that the total cost of the goods or services, inclusive of delivery charges and tax will cost more than $10,000 (change to $25,000), but less than $50,000 the DMBIA Executive Director, in consultation with the Board, shall issue a Request for Proposal/Quotation.
• Any expense over $25k we would go to tender, anything below that could go through the regular approval process of the board.
• MG/JT – Board discussed this change previously, but no motion was made to change the policy.
• Landscaping/flowers work is our only expense that this would apply to at this point. All our other expenses are below the threshold.
• CB moved to accept the minimum threshold from $10,000 to $25,000. ML seconded the motion. Motion passed.

Discussion – Landscaping, beautification

• KTD – Recommendation is to ensure Spice o’ Life Parkette has plants in it.
• RS – Ivy Arms and Spice of Life Parkette were in the contract in the past, but will ensure that continues. Flower Shed has talked about doing some raised planters in certain areas or planting pots directly into the ground in places that don’t grow well. Will try to continue to do small flower installations in a couple areas off Main Street.
• EC – Explore doing some perennials in beds to help reduce costs over time.
• JT – Asked about raised beds in some places. Extra seating on Main Street would be helpful and should figure out if there would be a cost savings over replacing damaged receptacle outlets.
• RS – Raised planters didn’t fit into context of Digital Main Street’s Future Proof Community Collaboration funding so we didn’t pursue it beyond that. Reached out to Town engineering department and they mentioned the issue of raised beds being destroyed by plows in the past. Would need to budget for annual repairs on those.
• DO – Could do a few raised flower boxes to try it out.
• JT – Should look 10 years down the line, electric cars will be the norm. We should explore electric charging stations for these vehicles. Could charge people for charging their cars and this becomes a revenue opportunity. Should start looking at possible partners. Would position us as progressive.
• EC/DO – Examples of charging stations in Sauble, Burlington. Could explore partnership with Tesla.

Filming in Downtown Milton

• Filming took place in Downtown Milton from November 16-21.
• Extensive media coverage, lots of interest/discussions on social media
• Some BIA businesses were happy with the experience, others were not happy. Most common complaints are loss of business and disruptions of daily business operations. We have sent a survey out to all members to collect their feedback on the experience and solicit suggestions.
• Sony provided financial compensation to business owners within the filming area or directly impacted.
• Some repairs were needed for items damaged during the filming, Site Manager working closely with individual business/property owners.
• Received sample guidelines from other BIAs and municipalities that they use to help manage filming projects. Have reached out to the Town to discuss some guidelines for Milton (Town staff working on something as well).

Digital Main Street: Digital Service Squad update

• Our two squad members (Rachael and Shahrez) are doing a fantastic job working with businesses, helping to uncover and address some real challenges these businesses are facing.
• Had initial meetings with 64 businesses, and had around 15 businesses that have said they don’t want to participate. (Both count towards goal of engaging 72 businesses, so we have achieved that goal.) Around 220+ businesses contacted to date.
• Approximately 40 businesses submitted applications for the grant and a dozen more are working on there. Hoping most businesses will get the grant.
• Some of the most common areas we have found that these businesses want to focus on:
• Creating/enhancing their websites
• Improving their social media
• Story-telling and video
• Purchase of hardware for use in marketing, operations
• Implementing POS systems
• Selling online (ecommerce), finding cheaper/easier ways to ship
• Digital advertising – google, social media, etc.
• We have started looking at group discounts for shipping – several of our businesses have expressed interest in this. Had initial conversations with Purolator. Also planning to look at Fed Ex, UPS, Canpar
• EC – Could explore having the businesses pay $150 for an annual membership to the CSGA and then be use their discount shipping rates (around 75% off) in Canpar. With Canpar, businesses can schedule a pick-up once in the day, and packages get picked up directly from the store.
• RS – Several businesses are delivering their orders themselves right now, and it’s time-consuming.
• DMS is helping build relationships with members and connecting us with some we have not been involved with before, as well as some businesses just outside our borders.
• Got confirmation from OBIAA that businesses just outside the BIA (zoned secondary commercial) are eligible for the grant, so we have started reaching out to some.
• Grant application deadline next week, then squad is off for two weeks over the holidays.
• For January, the squad will be helping businesses with the implementation of their Digital Transformation Plans, improve their Google My Business profiles (including adding 360 photos), one-on-one consulting. Squad in place until end of January/mid-February.

Discover Downtown Milton Guide

• Holiday edition released and it’s a really nice marketing piece for our members and our community.
• Kudos to Mira for making that happen, she worked hard on it. These guides were originally Cheryl’s idea and they are always well-received. Mira stepped up to do the photography after Ann left. Cheryl support with some of the editing. Mira did the updates to the design and pulled it all together.

Ferrero donation

• Will be receiving about 200 boxes of Ferrero Gallery chocolates. If the delivery arrives before the holidays, we will put on Santa hats and deliver them to any open businesses. Ferrero planned to use the chocolates for events but those didn’t happen so they made them available to BIAs through OBIAA.

Social media/Photography Contracting

• KTD – What happened with the social media/photography contract we had in place.
• RS – Ann had been with the BIA for at least six years, and most of our photography is from her. Last May (maybe), we started moving away from using her for social media as it was more efficient to do this work in the office. She was unhappy about the change. I let her know that social media is not going back to her and we wanted to continue to work with her for photography only. She wants to do social media so she decided to leave.
• This opens up more opportunities to use those dollars for a third person in the office – would be good to have someone that brings skills around social media, graphic design, etc. to be able to support and enhance our digital marketing, as well as administration.
• DO – There are lots of photographers that we can use for events, and could consider getting a good camera for the office so we can do this as well. Originally Ann was supposed to be developing the posts herself, but there were some quality issues and it required a lot of rewriting and editing, so it became more efficient for the office just to develop the content and post directly. Ann’s heart is in the right place. We want to ensure the story remains positive – and we value all the contributions that Ann made to the BIA.
• KTD moved to accept ED Report, DO seconded the motion. Motion passed.

New business

• KTD – If vaccines are rolled out by next holiday season, that might be our next large event. We would need to start planning early enough and ensure there is money in the budget to do something. There have been lots of models in terms of how we organize events – ourselves, event planning companies.
• EC – Likely we would start planning in the summertime for a holiday event. Probably best to organize the event ourselves so we have control over it. The addition of a third person in the office will help with this project and many other projects.
• RS – Charles Gibbs was interested in the board but he is now teaching evening courses so he is no longer available. But would be interested in committee work if the opportunity comes up.
• RS – Had conversations with a community member that is interested in getting involved in beautification in Downtown Milton. She is interested in helping with flowers, beautification. We also talked about doing a clean-up day in the spring. She likes to organize things and wants to be working towards a larger goal.
• KTD – Talk to groups like Sustainable Milton, Fridays for Future. They do pop-up clean-ups. Good Neighbours Day is usually in April. Could reach out and see if they are interested in doing a clean-up day in Downtown Milton. In exchange it would highlight their cause and their group. Could work in planting native species, a pollinator garden, etc.

Adjournment:

• DO moved to adjourn. KTD seconded the motion. Motion passed.
• Meeting adjourned at 7:46 pm.