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REGULAR MEETING COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION OCTOBER 2, 2024
Chairperson Cunniffe called the meeting to order at 8:37 a.m.
Commissioners present: Jeb Ball, Amanda Tanaka, Noemi Kiss-Baldwin, and Kiki Raj
Staff present: Nicole Henning, City Clerk; Emmy Oliver, Downtown Services
PUBLIC COMMENT: None.
COMMISSIONER COMMENTS:
Mr. Ball motioned to approve the minutes of 7/17 and 8/7; Ms. Tanaka seconded. All in favor, motion
carried.
BLOCK CAPTAIN PROJECT:
Ms. Tanaka said the goal of the block captain project was to have data to go to the city with.
Ms. Raj entered the meeting at 8:39 a.m.
Mr. Cunniffe agreed with Ms. Tanaka and said council was looking at all boards and commissions. We
need to find a way to reactivate the energy of this group. The market is justifiable, but beyond that, we
haven’t done anything like the alleys for a while. He said we need to decide on a project that we are all
comfortable with.
Ms. Tanaka said a presentation for City Council would be important too.
Mr. Cunniffe said instead of talking about commercial business, let’s talk about our neighbors. We don’t
represent the business community like ACRA, but more the success and care of our neighborhoods with
the block captain project.
Ms. Henning asked Ms. Oliver about project ideas for the board. She suggested finding out what the
businesses in the CORE care most about right now and compare with CCLC’s mission statement.
Ms. Tanaka said it’s clear from her conversations that it’s a lack of parking, and construction. It’s hard to
get employees and hard to get them to town. Safety on the streets is of concern as well.
Ms. Raj spoke about issues with construction workers.
Mr. Cunniffe said as homework we need to look at the founding documents. Ms. Henning said she can
send the documents to the board to take another look.
SATURDAY MARKET:
Ms. Raj said people liked the food throughout.
Ms. Henning said we will have the full Saturday Market recap with Kathy Strickland on the 16th.
The board spoke about Aggie vendors. Mr. Ball mentioned that they are hard to come by as reported by
Jeff Isaacson and Jeff Armstrong.
Ms. Tanaka asked Ms. Kiss-Baldwin how the hotels are looking at this point. She said October will be a
good month but it’s hard to say past that. The W, Mollie and Limelight will stay open in the off season.
The Jerome may not close either. The last off season was terrible.
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REGULAR MEETING COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION OCTOBER 2, 2024
She said this December will be terrible because of how Christmas is this year due to the school break.
January may also be a little bit down.
Ms. Tanaka said her business was down this summer.
Ms. Kiss-Baldwin said we have more hotels in town now and with the White Elephant opening too, it’s
hard for all hotels. We need to look at the rates because they went stupid high. We need to look at
going down a bit with hopes that occupancy will come back up. She said they are really working on
strategy right now.
Ms. Tanaka said she has seen a lot of first timers to Aspen this summer.
Ms. Kiss-Baldwin mentioned that the businesses in town did not receive notice of the bridge inspection.
Ms. Oliver asked what is the preferred method of communication. Ms. Kiss-Baldwin said they would love
an email or to sign up for important notices.
Ms. Oliver said she wants to find out with the communications team of how to funnel bigger messages
out to businesses.
Mr. Ball said Pitkin alerts works very well. The city could also issue alerts like this, it would be super
simple. He said he’s making a suggestion that at the end of the summer/fall season, there can be a recap
from CCLC about highlights that came out of this season. He said he feels he brings up ideas like this but
no one else is willing to do the work on putting a presentation together for Council.
Ms. Kiss-Baldwin said this group is getting a little disappointing. We barely met this summer because of
meetings getting canceled. She feels this is a commitment and we should be having meetings to show
for the work we are doing.
Mr. Ball said it would be good to get into a cadence based on facts and not emotions.
Ms. Kiss-Baldwin agreed and said if you are a part of this group, you have to spend time on things
outside of the meetings. She cares and she wants to do our part.
Ms. Raj brought up alleys and the grease traps. It’s a huge problem this summer. The greasy footprints
are very prevalent this year. It’s not good for the bears or for town.
Ms. Oliver said the city does have a bear person who walks the alleys in the mornings, and they have
been contacting businesses about grease traps.
They spoke about having the wildlife person in to talk about how things went this summer.
Ms. Tanaka asked for environmental health to come as well to speak about restaurants. Ms. Oliver said
it’s a lumped topic so we can definitely have someone come.
Mr. Ball motioned to adjourn; Ms. Kiss-Baldwin seconded. All in favor, motion carried at 9:26 a.m.
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City Clerk, Nicole Henning