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HomeMy WebLinkAboutcoa.cclc.min.021512 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 15, 2012 Chairperson, Andrew Kole called the meeting to order at 8:33 a.m. Commissioners in attendance: Bill Dinsmoor, Riley Tippet, Fred Ayarza and Siam Castillo. Excused were Don Sheeley, Terry Butler and Kiki Raj. Jerry Nye, Streets Department Gretchen Born, Community Safety Andrew said he talked with Don and his concern is that there are intersections near the Little Nell on Durant and it is hard to stop at the stop signs. We understand that mag- chloride will never be used. Don wanted to know if some of the worst corners be chopped and dirt added to improve the area. On Mill Street the brick that runs in front of the stores is very slippery and icy at night. The roof drips down and I have seen people slip and fall. Jerry said he is not sure that area is maintained by the city or not. Andrew suggested a sign be put up that says potentially icy at night. Bill said people get off the early buses by Paepcke Park so Tom Rubel's staff goes out there and sweeps that area first which is good but then there is a walking pattern that packs the snow down and by the time businesses open the damage is already done. When the sweeper is finished with the south side of Paepcke they drive down the middle of the street. Can they drive down the sidewalk and begin to get some of the snow problem taken care of. Bill said Tom told him if he does that sidewalk everyone will want it done. Gretchen said it is logical if the person has to go to the next spot. Jerry said if it is a private and your responsibility once you do one you are falling into that pattern. Andrew asked how do you enforce in front of the book store and Main Street bakery. Gretchen said we come by and ask someone to clean it. Bill asked why the city prioritizes Cemetery Lane in the morning. If there is a problem and a need and it requires a little more budgeting lets do it. We have a 90 million dollar budget. The stewardship and management of the parks department 1 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 15, 2012 is well done. Maybe some more sidewalks should be swept due to the issue at hand. I would advocate a line item to support more street sweeping. Andrew asked if that strip of stores offered to pay someone in the morning is that something that could be managed. Certain places are more pedestrian walkways than something like Cemetery Lane. You could offer it on a limited basis. There seems to be a lot of people that like that kind of work and would be willing to get up and do it. Bill said we pay more tax dollars than Cemetery Lane which is residential. Siam said Cemetery Lane area is a trail and that is the difference. Jerry said if Jeff and Tom knew there was more backing for an increased budget that might happen. Bill said it is not an issue about me because I have people there early in the morning to do it. Gretchen pointed out that the community has gotten better at taking care of the sidewalks. The participation between businesses and homeowners has gotten better. I put thank you notes on the doors. Fred said when you have a street with five businesses on it and four clean the sidewalk and one doesn't I don't know how you deal with that. Bill said he has one alley clearing issue and it is the alley behind Main Street bakery. There is a hill about 25 feet but it goes without sanding and we get a lot of cars sliding down the hill. Jerry said he can have his guys come by more frequently. Andrew asked if there is something better than mag- chloride out there. Jerry said there are numerous products out there. We were spending over $1,300 a ton for deicer and it does not work. It works on airports and it is called potassium chloride and it usually boils down to salt which is what mag- chloride is. It has natural minerals in it because it is mined out of the Great Salt Lakes. The negative is that I'm told it gets too out water but I disagree with that because it dilutes out and does not ever get to the river. 2 • COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 15, 2012 Andrew said they don't use mag- chloride because they feel it goes to the river. Fred said his concern is the entrances and exits to the alleys. Jerry said an alternative to mag- chloride is ice slicer. We are out sanding and trying to do the difficult spots and I am putting out more sand than I have ever done before. I have put out 319 tons of sand which is equivalent to 25 dump truck loads. The sand then runs into a catch basin. The right deicer is more environmental friendly than chipping rock. Bill said the mag- chloride is emotionally driven. Andrew asked if it would be beneficial if we put together a proposal for city council so that next winter it is improved. Jerry said he would prefer to use ice slicer. Colorado Department of Revenue use ice slicer and the information is on their web site. Siam said the sand doesn't sound any better than what mag- chloride can do. Fred said maybe we need someone from council to come down who is in favor of ice slicer. Jerry said he would like to use the ice slicer in the hot spots, hills and intersections and council is not favorable in dealing with it again. Fred complimented Jerry on handling the streets. Newspaper boxes Andrew said he and Fred, Kathy and Tricia walked around town looking at newspaper boxes. There is supposedly 18 spaces. There are about 150 newspaper boxes and most are metal. The plastic ones contain real estate or pamphlets and have not been authorized to be on the street. The ordinance is for newspapers. Our suggestion is to have the ordinance redone. We need to come up with a plan for damaged boxes, either put stickers or something on them. Out of the 150 boxes there are 60 of them that are not used at all and 20 are used for other things including garbage or they are broken. About 50 are used for newspapers. We would turn them over or give them to a recycling company in Milwaukee. I don't know what it would cost to replace them. The boxes available are called single boxes and there are three windows on a stand and there is up to a five or six stand. 3 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 15, 2012 We have been given permission to come up with a specific proposal. There is $40,000 available in the excess DEPP budget. We need between $20,000 and $30,000 to do this. They have authorized this but they don't know if they want to do it all at once or in pieces. Should we do nine locations and then six and six. My suggestion was do it all at once because you would get a much better price. I spoke with Steve, Adam and Torre. My suggestion is that we come up with a proposal with specific colors. They average about $300. a box and they come in 20 colors. Fred said Boulder went with new boxes and they stayed with a brown color that blended in. We don't want these boxes to stand out with four or five different colors and with four or five different heights. Andrew said the ordinance would need be written and I spoke to the papers and the Daily News said they are OK if someone wants to buy new boxes and they will maintain them. The Denver post doesn't car. I haven't spoke to the USA today. The difference between Boulder and here is that the news racks are spread out all over the place and having grown everywhere get boring. We can utilize colors. Fred said he wants the newspaper racks boring and one color. Andrew said we can debate the color at a different time. Bill said the condominium rack has issues and some of the papers don't want their papers lying down they want them standing up. You need different size boxes. News papers have court cases and they have preferred locations where there is activity. If we have a condo rack for six spaces and a seventh one comes along they have the right to dispense that paper. Andrew said bringing in different size boxes made a mess. My conversation with the papers is that they are glad to have a different setup. Regarding the first amendment rights they get to disperse the news and they do not have the right to newspaper boxes on the street unless we are providing newspaper boxes for other people. Fred said the city has the right of approval. Andrew said the local news papers are willing to maintain the newspaper boxes. There are seven papers. The ordinance has nothing to do with real estate, booklets and side magazines. 4 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 15, 2012 Bill said eventual HPC got involved with size and color. The condominium boxes in the past ended up having stickers put all over them and the news papers said it wasn't their responsibility to remove them. Andrew said someone said maybe we should spend more money and put them in brick casings. The problem with that is unless you have a wall it gets very expensive. We could price out brick holders. Bill said at the last review on newspaper racks to keep from putting stickers on the boxes they came up with a glue /pebble surface and the problem with that is it is very expensive. Fred asked what we do with private property. Andrew said the bottom line is that we give them new boxes. City Market had no problem with the replacement near the Grog Shop. Andrew said if we have a solid presentation we can go forward. Fred said he feels the cement pad etc. are issues that can be overcome. Bill said what happens with the left over papers that don't get dispensed. I end up recycling them myself. The newspapers that come out of the boxes go into the trash. Andrew said with the new ordinance if they are going to refill the boxes they have to take them and have them recycled. Andrew said they get money back for returning papers. Bill said no they only get money back on the Sunday paper. All the good hotels have papers available inside. Andrew said coordinating the newspaper issue is a concern. I would like to have a scheduled city council meeting when I get back in April. Do we as a group want to go forward and make this one of our projects. Siam said she likes the idea. Andrew said he feels we should have advertising on the front of the boxes but I don't think they will go for it. 5 COMMERCIAL CORE & LODGING COMMISSION MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 15, 2012 Fred and Bill said the city would not be in favor of advertising and who would manage it. Andrew said the city could take the advertising spots and turn it over to ACRA to promote events. Execution of who gets to promote and monitor it is difficult. Maybe the events pay for the inserts. At the most there will be 20 holes. Riley asked he is willing to go forward. Motion: Fred moved to go forward with the newspaper racks in April or May; second by Siam. All in favor, motion carried. Riley said the city could put one of their recycling boxes near the news paper boxes. Andrew said regarding the lighting Kale from Lacrouxstreeb is under the Parks Department now. MOTION: Riley moved to adjourn; second by Siam. All in favor, motion carried. Meeting adjourned at 10:00 a.m. hA Kathleen J. Strickland, Chief Deputy Clerk 6