St. Marys Downtown Development Authority (DDA)

Board Of Directors

Meeting Minutes for October 5, 2009

The regular meeting of the St. Marys DDA was called to order by Jim Lomis at 9:00 AM. 

Members Present: Charlie Smith, Craig Root, Tom Monahan, Bill Deloughy, Barbara Ryan, Jim Lomis and Walt Natzic

Members not Present:  n/a

Guest in attendance:  David Keating; Joint Development Authority (JDA) Director, Paula Amari; Promotions Committee Chair, David Brown, Sidney Howell, John Morrissey

Staff:  Alyce Thornhill; Executive Director, and Renée Coakley; Executive Assistant  

Minutes:  Lomis presented the September 8, 2009 meeting minutes.  The minutes were approved with a motion by Root and a second by Smith.  All were in favor. 

Treasurers Report:  Smith presented the September city and DDA financial reports.  The financials were approved with a motion by Smith and second by Natzic.  All were in favor. 

Additions to the Agenda:   Alyce added benches on fishing pier and Department of Natural Resources (DNR) report comments to the Directors Report.

DeLoughy entered the meeting.

Motion was presented to adopt the agenda by Ryan with a second by DeLoughy.  All were in favor.

Business discussion:

Design Committee-Landscape Update:  Alyce mentioned that the committee has planted fall flowers in front of the DDA building.  The committee will meet next week to talk about the memorial bench program for downtown.  Alyce mentioned that over the years of Build A Scarecrow during Hay Days, the account has grown to over $2000 and asked the board to consider using those funds for a bench in memory of Diane McCoy in the near future.    

Economic Development Committee-Alcohol Ordinance:  Alyce mentioned that the board has copies of ordinances for Brunswick and Valdosta regarding alcohol at outdoor festivals.  The Economic Development Committee is reviewing these documents and will have a draft for the board for the November meeting.     

Promotions Committee-Arts, Antiques & Eats:  Paula mentioned that the second edition has been released.  Copies for the board were distributed.  Paula mentioned that 22,000 copies were printed and FLETC in Brunswick has requested to be on the distribution site list.  October events:  Paula mentioned that the Community Market will be celebrating its two year birthday on October 31^st with a radio remote hosted by KBAY and the vendors will give out candy to honor this event.  Paula also read off a list of events for the month of October to include Hay Days activities in conjunction with events for the Big Read.

DIRECTORS REPORT:

Agreement with Joint Development Authority (JDA):  The board reviewed the agreement submitted by the JDA along with the comments from Attorney Charlie Smith.  Keating expounded on Article 3 which was requested by the Attorney to be reviewed.  The board requested that the wording be changed in regarding to the bonding agent to state that the bond agent be named or another qualified bonding agency in the state of Georgia agreed upon by all parties.  Root motioned to approve the agreement with Attorney Smith’s changes and a second was made by Ryan.  All were in favor.  Keating recommend that the board create a press release regarding the approval of the agreement. 

Certificate of Deposit (CD) Renewal:  Lomis recommended renewing the CD at a six month rate due to the current interest rates.  It was noted that two local banks were omitted during the calling for rates.  The board requested that Bank of America and Citizens State Bank be contacted and the bank with the highest six month rate be chosen.  Motion was made by Ryan to use Southeastern Bank with an interest rate of 2.0% for six months if it was still the highest rate after contacting the other two businesses with a second by DeLoughy.  The rest were in favor with an abstain vote by Root.

Grants-Employee Incentive Program (EIP), Gateway, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Brownfield:  Alyce mentioned the EPA Brownfield grant that she will be working on with the JDA and Courtney Tobin.  Alyce mentioned the Gateway Grant will be applied for again this year.  The area being considered for the application will be where St. Marys Road exits onto Highway 40.  Alyce mentioned the EIP grant is completed and all Department of Community Affairs (DCA) stipulations have been met.

Shop Local Campaign:  Alyce mentioned that the Chamber of Commerce’s campaign will begin before the October 16^th deadline.   Funding slowed this process but the local tourism offices and DDA offices all donated funding to further this effort.

Census:  Alyce mentioned that she has been chosen to be the media contact for the city for the census campaign.  Alyce will be meeting with the base Admiral to discuss the importance of the military families completing the census documents.

Meandering Merchants:  Alyce mentioned that the merchants have had two meetings and will be working on different events to encourage more business in downtown.  The merchants plan to do an all day open house in the near future.  

Georgia Economic Developers Association (GEDA) annual Conference:  Alyce mentioned that at this recent conference she attended a session that discussed incubators for businesses.  Alyce mentioned that St. Marys already has many of the resources that were mentioned.  

Main Street Conference:  Alyce mentioned that St. Marys has been chosen and will be the host of this conference in March 2010.

Businesses and Updates:   Alyce mentioned that the Art gallery has opened in the old Phoenix Hall building and a coffee shop will open there at the end of October.  The bait shop has reopened at the waterfront and the Riverview Hotel has completed a lot of renovations and upgrades.  Alyce also mentioned that an intern from Armstrong will be used in the near future to survey businesses.

DNR Visit:  Alyce mentioned that she will send a drawing of where the bench will be located on the pier to DNR.  Also while the representative from DNR visited they looked at the Downtown boat ramp, Meeting Street and Borrell Creek entry points.  They recommended that a plan for what the water access should look like be submitted to DNR for future use should any funding becomes available.

Adjourn – Meeting adjourned at 9:55 AM with a motion by Ryan and second by Natzic. 

_____________________________

Charlie Smith, Secretary

Prepared by Renée Coakley, Executive Assistant