Downtown Lakeland Partnership, Inc. • Board of Directors Meeting Minutes
MidFlorida Federal Credit Union, 7th Floor Conference Room • Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Present: Kevin Jones, Julie Townsend, Ellen Simms, Dan Stetson, Jean Bunch, Kay Morgan, Lori Powell, Jim Nixon, John Hutto, Frank McCaully, Gloria Brooke, Anne Furr, Eric Belvin, Randy Anderson.

Kevin Jones called the meeting to order at 8:10AM.

Minutes:  Minutes from the April Board meeting were reviewed and accepted as presented.

Treasurer’s Report:  Gloria deferred to Ellen Simms for the report.  The current balance is $46,442.00.  Dues are still coming in slowly, and letters have been sent to delinquent members.

President’s Report: The new BDC brochure is almost complete.  A separate committee meeting will be held to finalize it.

Committee Reports:

Events: First Friday’s theme on June 5 is “School’s Out”.  There will be lots of activities as usual including the Polk Museum of Art and Explorations V.

Due to budget cuts, the Sundown Celebration “Red, White & Kaboom” has been cancelled for this year in downtown on July 3.  Joker Marchant Stadium will hold their usual fireworks on July 4.  Kevin Jones said that Mid-Florida would sponsor $5,000.00 and perhaps other sponsors could be found.  Obviously this is a very important part of the downtown culture and we want to see it continue.

Programs:  Doug Thomas, Lakeland City Manager , is our speaker for June.  Just in case he bows out, Jean Bunch is prepared to give her program on Lake Mirror.  If Doug does speak in June, Jean will be our July program.  Jean gave a brief overview of what she plans to present to the general membership.

Advertising/PR: Julie informed the group that the new website is up and running.  35 members attended the training, but more is needed.  Additional classes will be set up soon.

Membership:  Ellen Simms reported 145 members to date.

LDDA:  Anne Furr gave the following report:  On May 19th, the Sign Regulation to include sidewalk signs went to the Planning & Zoning Board for a public hearing.  It will come before the board again on June 16th for approval.  Directory signs as part of the wayfinding will address businesses in alleys and directing customers from one block to the next where parking lots hinder pedestrian flow.

429 customers used the discount card in the VISIT FL brochure during March & April (60 days). Last year 312 cards were utilized in a 90 day period.

The Farmers Market has reduced their Wednesday hours to 11:00AM-4:00PM.

The Tax Collector’s report for May has not been received yet, but April’s report stated that 82% of the property taxes in the LDDA boundary have been collected.  Last year it was 93% at the same time.  May 29th is the cut off date, so we’ll report again in June.

A debriefing was held yesterday to discuss the bicycle race that was held downtown on May 16th.  The discussion was about what worked and could have worked better.  There will be future meetings to discuss the event for next year.

The next LDDA Board meeting will be June 4 at 8:00AM in the City Commission Conference Room.

Executive Director Report:  The annual DLP luncheon is creeping up and Julie asked that we begin thinking about the silent auction items.  A separate meeting to discuss the event will be scheduled at a later date.

Also, additional fundraising efforts are under consideration including “Beer fest” in downtown Lakeland.  Again, we will discuss this at future meetings.  Julie asked that we continue to work on new ideas.

With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:15.

Respectfully submitted,

Lori Powell
Secretary