this is the Thursday February 15th meeting of the special Improvement District Board of Trustees would ask Steve to please read the sunshine compliance statement Tracy LaVine will join us shortly thank you chair notice of the time date location and agenda of this meeting to the extent known was provided at least 48 hours prior to the commencement of this meeting in the following manner pursuant to the provisions of njsa 10 4-6 the open public meetings act notice was posted in town hall and the township website by notifying newspapers on December 19th 2023 of the schedule for 2024 and providing notice to the Township Clerk if everyone can please rise and salute the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all can check when Ashley gets on Roll Call first or then mission statement mission statement first the purpose of the special improvement district is to promote grow and support local businesses Property Owners residents and visitors Milbourne Township Sid ordinance designates a new District Management corporation whose mission is to encourage the economic cultural and social Vitality of Milbourne Township through increased marketing and visibility improved and renewed infrastructure and local business development and engagement I'll take the role Alexa Clark Tracy catline will be attending shortly Tim Hoffman here Jackie lieberberg here Ben Stoler pres Ashley Schultz here hello Ashley and Steven Winer here we can do the minute if you'd like because Tracy was absent last time anyway okay may I have a approval of the January 18th 2024 move uh minutes may I have a motion to approve those minutes motion may I have a second all in favor Alexa you want want to per the microphone thank you okay moving right along the treasurer's report oh they're moving right on sorry thank you this is our first time running a meeting for this start I'm having trouble keeping up okay um what's on TV at 8:00 you hear me included in your materials are is our 2024 budget uh report January 31st 2024 we had a bank balance of $ 17,45 77 uh as of February 8th you'll notice a big jump up to $69,999 town on February 7th the um allocation for the executive director director's salary in the amount of $ 55,1 158 um also I wanted to mention the formatting of this report's a little updated we have three columns A and C which is meant to detail the sources of the revenue um the assessment uh outside grants and sponsors and then Township contributions so providing a little more uh transpar Arcy into the source of each of the line items um further there is just wanted to make a note that the assessment role for 2024 was approved by the township committee on February 6 unanimously so that was good news and then I'm gonna just go over a new report uh that we've added this year which is included as well uh that is the report on grants and other funding resources so uh you have that in your packet I have a reorganized a little bit just for presentation purposes um we do have two Financial requests in uh one to Columbia Bank and one to Richmond County Savings Bank uh Garden State Bank and Union is uh in their service area and therefore in our granting area uh both of those uh it's 15,35 uh they've both been submitted and they're under review and those would be for streetscaping projects on Morris Turnpike and upper Milburn Avenue um so we're awaiting those decisions um we do intend to apply to TD Bank foundation for uh music to support the live music series um that is uh supposed to be done 90 days prior to the launch of the project and so um we'll talk a little bit more about the main street closure process and Tim will detail that um but uh if that does go forward we'll be applying for funds for that um we do have we are in the process and we'll talk about it some more of applying to the New Jersey uh Main Street program through the DCA that's due on March 15th and then subsequent to that um the uh the state does offer an economic and Zoning analysis program for free um where they'll come in and analyze your improvement district for for zoning improvements and um and economic development so uh once we apply for the Main Street program they've encouraged us to apply for that as well um two programs that have come online this month one is from the new New Jersey Division of Tourism um that is a uh grant program to help support uh online marketing and social media marketing so we'll be applying for that um and then the Schuman fund uh is a local fund out of Monclair that uh has encouraged us to apply as well so um that we got a lot of things in motion there's nine uh Grant projects that are in some form so we'll just keep updating you month to month but uh hopefully one of those two streetscaping grants hits um and then we can start in the summertime doing some of the streetscaping projects excellent are there any specifics about those grants that we should know about or or just not particular okay yeah okay Mr Stoler Township committee report please sure and uh see if you give me us a list of those I want to keep those going to so I can report that the TC the list of eight it's become a topic in you know discussion in the township of why there hasn't been grants you know people people applying for grants in previous so I would love to overwhelm the township with grants and money know raing money so I think it' be a good thing well it's it's funny that you bring that up because actually Alex and I had a conversation today um with New Jersey Transit office of Transit friendly planning um and so that group handles land use planning the only group in New Jersey Transit does land use planning and um they actually will come in and meet with elected officials um board officers Etc to talk about some of the things that we discussed were pedestrian safety Ada access downtown circulation micr mobility and then the grants to actually secure that um and so something as simple as improving a crosswalk or um better access to the train station from the parking deck you know these are not cataclysmic you know big projects but they do require money and the state will help design those projects through an on call consultant and then um they can fund them as well so Alex and I had that meeting today and he's going to bring that to you at the TC level as well so fantastic yeah so so one of the updates I give was the main street application approval at the TC level and U you know I went to considerable lengths to question uh Mr gillo on every possible top top I went to considerable lengths to question Mr Gill every possible topic uh to really understand uh any obligations to the township obligations of the township to state or federal etc etc so that we understood and that there were any um that there was nothing uh for lack of a better word sinister going on and that everyone understood it seemed to open up everyone to say hey we should be getting more grants we should be putting in for all the grants and that it is money that is available to our Township and that was off the back of I guess an article that came out that said that other townships were receiving grants and we were not putting in for them and why we weren't so I think that was very good uh and Steve did a great job of explaining and articulating the pros and of the of the platform of the grant Etc and how it applies to the downtown district and that the Aesthetics of downtown Etc and how it works so we're in process there uh just two other points um I want to talk about the we did not have a chance to get into the holiday Decor committee and Township funding uh however I discussed a little with Alex afterwards and we do think it makes sense of for Holiday winter Decor in the business districts uh so I think we should do a unified long-term plan and we should create some type of committee to ensure proper budgeting uh and requests so I think we should actually put that together here and go with a long-term you short-term and a long-term strategy to beautify the township during the holiday season I think that makes a lot of sense so I think we should actually put that together I had not had the opportunity to do it I think we should be very um methodical in that process that we should do it early uh and then um I do want to talk about the prohibited uses ordinance uh that was approved by the TC I think it's important for this board to understand uh we did uh the prohibited use ordinance was passed uh to ensure a broad level certain uses such as vape shops slaughter houses retail sell of firearms uh and others would require a use variance from the board of adjustment to operate in Milburn townships uh we certainly understood there may be acceptable uses or uses that can be made acceptable as conditional that fall under the prohib prohibition ordinance however these can be examined more thoroughly at a broad level uh and that is controlled the township committee felt that this ordinance is consistent with the vision of what types of retail establ establishments bless you we want to trct to Milburn and that doesn't mean they're all prohibited they just have to go in front of the zoning board for the approval cor so and that's about it terrific um any questions I I just want to piggy back on that um it's been a I think it's a great thing to put together a prohibited us as ordinance because um one of the discussions in in my Economic Development spheres in the state is just aged out ordinances when it comes to zoning and so anytime a municipality takes the initiative to review its zonings uh zoning codes add things remove things it it just shows that there's some progress so I think it's a terrific thing to do I just have a question do we have any uh updates on the liquor Murphy where that land where that do we have any more information do you do yeah okay so that was that was all taken care of I guess in early January if I recall um I thought we talked about January I don't recall um I I think from a a downtown perspective it has not been good I think most communities are fairly frustrated um because there was a hope that more liquor licenses would be available in small business Commercial districts not just downtowns but um strip mall complexes Etc uh really what came out of it is that large shopping malls really were the ones that received the benefit so um don't quote me on this but I think an maybe Ryan you remember this off top of your head but I think malls above 750,000 square feet get an extra four licenses and malls above a million get an extra five licenses I I don't not familiar with the mall provision yeah so don't don't don't take that as gospel but it's it's close um and you know I think the the feeling that came out of the Murphy Administration the press releases was that they are genuinely concerned about the survival of large malls in the state um which from special improvement district perspective is is a nice thing it means downtowns and Commercial districts are rebounding on the other hand uh you know the number one taxpayer in this town is a Short Hills mole um and so there's a bit of a catch 22 when it comes to that but I think um we have seen a number of breweries shut down throughout the state in the last quarter um you know I think there's definitely some frustration or continues to be frustration about how difficult the liquor license reform has been okay but I would I would not expect any new liquor licenses in any of our commercial districts within the city sadly we've been talking about a beer and wine license as a carat and that hasn't been embraced well one thing that we do have in New Jersey and actually Jack's Lobster Shack and maybe basilic um New Jersey wine yeah well no it doesn't have to just be New Jersey wine um it's just as long as you purchase from one Vineyard or one provider and so for instance ja has a license to sell wine but it can only come from from one provider in California so you can buy wine there you just have you just better like that Vineyard that's that's the rule but that rule I believe has been in place I think sometime since like the 80s I'm surprised it's not embraced more I agree yeah I don't know why more popular okay yeah but that that is a provision that the state allows okay interesting um Mr Hoffman business administrator's report thank you good evening everybody um I'm going to comment on one item tonight talking about the main street closure traffic study status I'm just basically providing a basic overview of what the process is going forward and where we are right now um ultimately with the main street closure that's something that's done by ordinance by the township committee um that's what establishes the closure and in order for that to happen that has to then also be approved by the Department of Transportation um in advance of consideration by this by the uh Township committee uh there's we're working on trying to have a traffic flow traffic study done in order to look at flow enhancements throughout the downtown just to see how can we improve upon what's been done in the past um really to ensure that traffic flow is better but also ensuring safety throughout the downtown um we're trying to have a proactive approach to what we're doing and looking at at this point um so we're we're hoping to get that process started and also trying to get that done before there's consideration by the township committee there um I don't have anything to comment on with the Essex Street two-way conversion but I'll turn over to Mr gillo for that area sure and and just for um just for timing on the main street closure we met with um well you you were in that meeting you're not on the Essex Street meeting you're in on the the main street closure meeting um we met with the traffic engineer I guess two weeks ago um and they are going to be they are starting they have already started traffic counts and they're looking at some intersection controls where um just for instance they're going to analyze Short Hills uh old Short Hills Road as it comes down towards Main Street um that's a congestion point when Main Street is closed that's uh right now we only allow one right turn lane but there are two lanes that could be used and it goes into two lanes of traffic um The Challenge would be how do you maintain pedestrian safety and so they're going to look at creating two right turn Lanes to alleviate vehicular traffic and maybe shutting the crosswalk between uh the old Charlie Browns and common mod and requiring people to go around the other way um so we don't have the results obviously they're in the middle of the study now but uh the expectation is that the township committee will receive that report probably in mid March um and so it's not just traffic counts it's looking at some more functionalities to alleviate traffic as well as pedestrian conflicts but um as more information comes it'll be provided to the TC just one one one point of uh reference I I would also include you know some type of touch point for St Barnabas uh as as well as fire and police as well I mean and first a squat uh I think those those four touch points would be very important for us uh because of uh you know not only the altercation that occurred right here where Mr Feld is sitting with the the valises last year um which was the um there was a altercation of us gentleman had a uh a cardiac arrest some sort cardiac issue and issue timing issue South yeah U so I would and there was also a a surgeon who stood up and at the podium and gave testimony on he was having difficulty having his staff who lives south of uh Milbourne make it into the hospital hospital or the O in a timely manner so I think it would behoove us to have those discussions um and what the timing because I think he said it was on only certain time so just to make sure we do that home mark absolutely and the engineer will be looking into that so we'll we'll make a special not of that and uh I'm passing around now a presentation that I actually made I think in September of last year to this board um this really looked at user Trends and economic impact of the main street closure um I don't know if if Ben had a chance to see it before he was elected um but this is just really good data uh this was based on a survey that we conducted um some of the high points 30% of the users come from neighboring communities um 19% weekday evenings I know that was you know is it just a weekend kind of place is it a weekday kind of place um there's all interesting data in there um and we also got some feedback um in terms of things that we could fix better light timing adding a crossing guard more active police traffic management and so um I think this serves as a good good addendum to the discussion that that we've had on this yeah absolutely you know I've been a big proponent of closing the street down on times that make sense you know on a Monday at 11 o'clock for two people to enjoy a charet in the middle of Main Street is that the opportun is that the opportune time and I don't know if that's true or not I mean just so we understand what the metrics are and and when it's really you know the cost benefit analysis and such yeah I think it's important we you know we were feeling our way through this right in 20 I guess 2020 predat to me I don't know what what the schedule was but in 21 um we had done weekend closure only really like Mother's Day to July and then it was permanent then we reduced that weekend closure to just June then last year we eliminated the weekend closure because it was just too chaotic and so we've been fiddling it with it every year and I think you know Ben's questions about usership and user time are you know we've been learning that ourselves right is we didn't necessarily need it in May when school was still in session it was just an excess cost and so yeah we're I think we have to look at this not only holistically but collaboratively you know everybody sees it differently and uses it differently and there's a lot of data out there but there's also I I think the traffic numbers are going to be you know really important and how we can make the traffic move more smoothly as well so that'll come to you probably mid-march and Tracy has joined us just for the right now yes welcome Tracy thanks my apologies for the delay you yes thank you very much good to be back that oh I owe you comments on that we yes this is not as interesting um so we are in the final final steps of what has now been a year plus process of uh working with uh Colliers engineering to look at the two-way conversion of the entirety of essic street so that is from what is actually called Douglas Street behind us this way where the traffic triangle is as you're coming into downtown all the way up to where the Annie says property is in the other traffic triangle um and so the concept has been fairly straightforward in terms of of how much roadway there is you can remove some parking and create two ways for traffic the challenge has been all of the intersections the parking deck the entrance to lot one um the crosswalk by live breeds uh the recommendation is potentially to move that slightly um to try to make it a little bit more pedestrian friendly so uh the the report they gave us a final version yesterday and we spent about an hour with the Consultants um there's probably going to be a public visioning and discussion on the final results in the next three to four weeks depending on when Alex can schedule it but um I think we're we're very very close to a final product on what that recommendation would be and then obviously have to go through the process with the TC but in terms of the committee and the engineering firm I think we're we're about 99% of the way there is there targeted you know when would that is is there a better time to start that I mean thinking like a summertime winter or well it's it's a capital project I mean you'd have to you know you have to start doing quite a bit of work um you know restriping and um removing parking and I think there's a call for a new traffic light somewhere in there um you know it's different turning Lanes it's it's a very very large project yeah is there any way to to um map out I don't know I'm not a traffic engineer but map it out on a temporary basis to see how it goes first I think we learned our lessons from complete streets there there was a discussion about that um about looking at it in segments um so one segment was actually from Maine to Douglas right so going past really from common line to Mariachi to the new Wells Fargo development um because we do have the fire department and police department there and so there's some challenges about getting vehicles in and out um there was the discussion about the conversion of Spring Street to a two-way uh which has been a oneway for quite some time I think it was originally a two-way if I recall yes um so I think what may happen as this whole process unfolds is some temporary experiments with different streets um but I think it's great that we've gotten this far in the process um I think it's actually been more closer to two years if I if I recall because you were on the original committee Richard I think yeah and it's complicated and there's a lot of moving Parts yeah and the traffic and from what I remember the traffic there's an issue also when you add a traffic light um you know that's a very that's a pretty sizable expense yeah and um and there's different types of traffic lights and I think that um I think that that's that will probably be one of the discussions also because one of the the big things we're talking now a left turn from old from old Short Hills Road onto Essex right that doesn't exist today that's a total change that's gonna have to be made um so and Annie says um there's there was discussion yesterday about how are we going to deal with expectations of a project that doesn't exist yet right um how are people going to utilize that entryway um when it's now a two-way street as opposed to a oneway street so I don't expect this to be a fast process but I would also say this is the kind of project that does need to be very deliberative um because it's a very complicated project on that street but but but when I was involved with the K I mean they they were very um they were anticipating that it would actually speed up traffic that there would be an efficiency built into own this and I guess that's what what the real that's what the driver is that that actually people could get around without going in you know going all the way around in the circle that you know one of the committee MERS uh mentioned that yesterday and we talked we had a bit of an aside during the meeting which was um what is the problem right and that you're trying to solve for and I think part of the the challenge is that it's called the Essex Street two-way but Essex Street is really not the central point it's really about dealing with congestion on murn Avenue and Main Street and why does that exist part of that is because S6 street is a one-way Street and you could alleviate some of the more challenging congestion on other streets if you made s a two way so um it's not only complicated I guess in terms of the physical layout but it it will impact the entirety of the downtown hopefully in a positive way you you mentioned earlier um about eliminating the crosswalk uh common lot to the Charlie Browns I mean I live up in that no not no just blocking it for blocking it for now but wouldn't but couldn't that be something that they could look at as a as a permanent thing because uh because it is very difficult to make that right turn at any time with or without s Street um Prim excuse me Main Street being closed yeah and I I think the same logic applies to um what is now called The Hearth at Milburn the old the old Wells Fargo site um you know right there there's no crosswalk um even though there'll be 50 something apartments right so and then also I mentioned L bre and that it's kind of a wonky way that it's laid out there's a crosswalk and there a traffic light crosswalk and then another traffic light right after it and so it's not a particularly well-designed section of Road and so I think there there's a whole host of things that need to be addressed in terms of pedestrian safety and vehicle uh efficiency on essic Street itself so um I think it's a great thing and I I encourage all the board members when we do have this public meeting to come out I think it'd be very informative do we know when it is it hasn't been scheduled the last public meeting was was very well attended yeah and uh a lot of a lot of uh opinions uh you know a lot of positive opinions a lot of negative opinions but um I think part of it was just getting in seeing what the flow of traffic is and and getting getting to the next step which is probably two-way traffic on Main Street too see yeah that's the second phase yeah to see the normalized because right now it's not normal I mean you know you guys know where I live on the historic section in Wyoming is I come down this Essex Street Milburn Avenue to Essex every day and there's always somebody making a left off aana on Essex without doubt three four times a week I see somebody making an illegal left turn yeah and we off of we off of Old Hills Road yeah I think that will solve a lot of it well it will and now'll be a turn they won be going down W Street so more to come um certainly when a date is released I'll I'll let the the entire business Community know thank you you will uh moving along um Mr Cooper statement sure regarding the 501c3 y so prior meeting uh there was a suggestion that um the um SP Milburn sh Hills 55013 application to the IRS um did um quite a bit um improper or didn't disclose the um Sid's relationship with the township committee uh there is a this is in the packet is that correct Steve correct yes so there is a letter um in your packet from an accountant uh I think it's very well written I think um very straightforward so I'm not going to recap the entire thing I just want to be very clear there's there's no merit whatsoever to that suggestion if um in addition to the clarity of the letter that's in your um packet there's uh to put the whole thing to rest you know we contacted the IRS and I say we The Entity not me personally was the the accountant wrote this who confirmed that the IRS was well aware of the Sid's relationship with the township committee uh and I can tell you that that's I think pretty much on face value anybody who's ever submitted a 501c3 application to the IRS and I have you submit your bu laws they look at that very closely so uh the suggestion that um the IRS doesn't understand the relation is is friendless so um I just wanted to I know the executive director wanted to make sure that that was in the packet I wanted to just address it if there were any questions on it I'd like to just add funny enough we got in the mail today a letter from the IRS in addition to the auditor oh good so um this simply stipulates um that the IRS had a conversation with our auditor and Rec confirms what they stated yeah yeah I think the suggestion is silly they must have known we had a meeting to the contct um uh second item I just wanted to talk about was I know there was also a lot of discussion uh about the bare properties uh litigation um and particularly as it sometimes relates to public comment that residents may make um again just so I'm always available um either in executive session or offline for any questions um so um the be properties's plaintiff uh is a is a entity I think it's an LLC I Believe Miss erso who's a frequent public commenter who was here last week is um one of the uh owners of be properties uh so in in effect a litigant uh to the extent she's part of the control group uh of the business entity um Mr Feld also frequent public commenter is the be properties plaintiff's the plaintiff's attorney right so he's representing that entity in the lawsuit um and um uh you know as we've talked about repeatedly the Sid is not a party to that litigation but the litigation does seek to revoke the ordinance that created the sit which is I think why there was a lot of discussion about um the format and the extent of in um uh engagement with with a litigant and their attorney um while litigating is is pending um also just with respect now I think this is the third year I've been the council to the board um and and have been enjoying we've been talking about this I think since the very first day which is the the mediation issue uh I believe it still has not been scheduled um there has been a lot of representation about the or implication or reference that the requirement to mediate is a um should be inferred as a endorsement of the plain Case by the court and and as I've said before uh absolutely should not make that inference it would be a false inference um mediation is a required program in almost all civil cases filed in New Jersey Superior Court um so there there just shouldn't be any inference made from that um and um again while we're not a party to to the um lawsuit and and even if we were which we're not you know during the pendency of the litigation the the C's going to operate as as usual uh until there's a ruling otherwise uh and and certainly none are anticipated at this time so while I'm not an attorney record for um in the case because we're not a party to it again I'm happy to make myself available at any time to anybody who has questions about that either during meetings or or afterwards I believe the mediation is scheduled for May 29th at least I have a my schedule it may very well be it's it's been it's been scheduled probably half a dozen times over the past three years um so yeah the other thing I I'll just tell you the Practical matter so I I got a notice today of another case that I'm representing a party in of a mediation that's scheduled for February 27th we settled that case in in November so my my point being is that you you get these notices periodically with with dates on them uh and they are heavily dependent on where the case is at when you get to that date the parties availability the mediators availability Etc so um I think that is certainly an aspirational date um maybe the parties will get there uh I wouldn't be surprised if they don't okay marketing and events report Amanda Dean right Steve's gonna pass out um this is yeah um so this this is the cover sheet to the sponsorship packet for the entire year all the different opportunities um I'm going to finish uh those sheets uh the rest of the details and we should have this up on Tuesday um what what we're offering is something different this year we have six Signature Events and um there's what's called a super sponsor so someone that gets a de a slight deal on this uh sponsorship but they pick for and they commit to that um and then they get that signature level um sponsorship and the benefits that go with that the Stellar sponsor it's a similar offer except it's you pick two events um for 8,000 and you get the signature level um benefits as well um and then uh we have um with live music uh there's three different opportunities Street scaping three different opportunities um but this is just kind of an overview and um so we're really looking forward to it there's a few new things on here I'll be brief about we're going to do an upper Milburn Avenue day I believe we've discussed it before in August we're collaborating with the Metropolitan on that um they're going to be one of our sponsors just working on what that uh will be and um we're doing what we're calling a Holiday Spectacular I'm not sure if you all have noticed yet but we're losing a week between Thanksgiving and Christmas and Hanukkah so um and Christmas and Hanukkah are almost at the same time this year so we're doing um an event this Saturday before Thanksgiving to try and get people out earlier um so that's that's going to be a an interesting event and it'll be a test for us but I think it's necessary and uh everything else I think you're familiar with um any questions on this can ask not seen this before um can you just give me a quick rundown of of how many sponsors we've had in the past and what it means to be a sponsor etc etc um I can give you a ballpark and then I can give you a report um so depending on the event um winter villages we had seven sponsors um this past year girls night out we had I think it was eight or n sponsors um her MD uh was the I think the top one um and then we we' had the here for the holidays event I don't know if you're familiar with that um we had it at 12 homes and in 2022 it was an empty space and we did kind of a holiday Boutique but just Sid businesses and we had I want to say probably five sponsors for that event as well um but I can send you a a full list of do you want to just explain a little bit what the sponsor the sponsorship like I think W Villages is why don't you okay so let me I'll break down winter Villages so with winter Villages um the signature sponsor they get their logo on the banner that we put over um Essex Street that that area the little Island by the book house where you see banners all the time um so we put a banner there um and includes event signing um it includes uh dedicated reels to um our our social media uh followers it includes dedicated eblasts to we have over 2600 people um and then it gets down into things like the uh posters that go in the shop Windows um our events listings things like that so different events have um different uh kind of perks um just because of the way the event is laid out uh with the winter Villages something that was unique uh this year we had a s'mores sponsor which was uh splurge and they they gave out and managed all of the uh the s'mores activities and then we had five um eagloo uh this year and the difference from 2022 to 2023 is we made them sponsorship opportunities so Linda's florist um sugaring NC sugaring NYC curious kids several businesses that just open or are going to open became uh ELO sponsors and then we put a little kind of North poy sign in front of them and uh it was it was very successful so that's some of the unique things there with girls night out we're g to have a neat opportunity this year we're GNA have a and I'll explain more but it's going to be a mermaid themed experience so we will have live mermaids uh here and so that's going to be a sponsorship opportunity so just to give you a sense of some of the differen so I just have a question the the signature sponsors are those listed above four events for $10,000 are any of those six is that correct yeah so the two events for eight I'm not sure that's probably should be three events right sponsor I think it isn't I think it's t yeah I think it's three events right it's a t oh okay it is yeah sorry about that yes right three I just wanted to yeah three events okay that's what I that's why we uh have extra eyes extra eyes and Y okay okay cool that's all yeah so so couple things I want to do is uh and now sitting on like seven different committees as a Township Committee Member liaison um like the rec committee The Joint Fields a lot of these guys are um they want to start cross pollinating some of their groups with the township with the the business improvement district because they they we had like four teams in the finals and what do the kids do after the wins and celebrate at lrat celebrate like our kids all did and you know I know Steve and the girls after volleyball after after soccer or whatever is how do we get all the everyone communicating on the same page but also cross reference on their social media Pages as well because a lot of them and the big one came when I was mentioning at the at the rec department about restaurant week uh because I was talking to the guys at lrda and U and they were all really complaining about they went all out for a restaurant week so I was pushing Restaurant Week hard and even agret La perola some of the other people is that they didn't get to turnout they want so I've been pushing at all of the different leaon communties I'm on is get all your parents and kids out to Restaurant Week like well we don't know about restaurant week so somehow we have to light that fire to get more and more people out for restaurant week so and then they're like well can you get people out to the games so I think we have to figure out some way to cross communicate across all these different boards and you know whether it's I just don't have enough time in the day but somehow we can get a cross communication through all the boards from joint to recck to Boe to all these guys where we can kind of cross reference uh and even on Happy Milburn you know uh if we could or any of these Milburn channels on social media to kind of cross uh pollinate you know and upsell upsell upsell all these great events out uh and even the wreck the wck games because we have literally four or five teams in the finals on a state level for the wreck programs and I don't know if anybody's even heard about it but you know it's just been fantastic and also for the kids uh for not for the kids for the uh the high school programs between fencing volleyball our volleyball was in the state championship our fencing is in the state championship our soccer was in the state championship our our football and wrestling weren't but uh our soccer team was you know it's fantastic programs but how do we get all of these to germinate that same type of enthusiasm to cross into the business section uh and then also too paper mill should be on here too getting you know cross referencing that I'm sure we do um for uh to for Restaurant Week oh yeah for restaurant they are participating I'll be giving a report on that um well I think you know you bring up an interesting point I've always used Ceda as I think a really good example right so seed is this umbrella organization where all these other Arts and Cultural groups who are often less well established or don't have the communication or they're all volunteer get to kind of filter their ideas and plans up and then this this one kind of lead group takes the run on it I think I think that's a good model for how the town could potentially I think certainly the Sid has the capability of promoting um I I've heard many times on social media for people that the town just does not do a good job of promoting itself and it's and its organizations um I think we there there's a lot of political talk on social media there's not a lot of current events talk um and maybe maybe that's a matter of the the middleburn Facebook page being more versatile and we do have now a public information officer who's very good who I think could step up and you know go through what's going on we have a very good relationship with uh the Board of Ed and we also work with all of the uh elementary schools um preschools Etc um and so we actually go door too um for child focused events they're really receptive I think there's others that haven't been as receptive but I think it's absolutely worth the conversation about it's a lot of good stuff going on but you need like a central repository um and so I don't know if that's I think it's the township and I think it's there's got to be some mechanism because we do have you we have the mayor's message phone call we do have the uh the push notification text messages I just don't think they're being utilized as well as they could be now the township committee phone call yes yes the township committee phone call um but that I think that's a step in the right direction but also couldn't you have a a student lead aison that um from the high school that is in charge of communicating or or coordinating and centralizing all this information and then either reporting it to for the weekly mayor's message on the or or some kind of forum and H and Empower a a you know somebody that's interested a junior or senior that's interested in marketing Communications and have that person um perhaps make to our public information officer and and and make those kinds of um that sound a good internship right opportunity for for high school student but also I think on our website I think that there's an opportunity maybe on the website to coordinate with the our public information officer you know where you get all just happening this week in mbour where where minimally it's it's on the website you know or or it's on the town social media and uh but I think you're absolutely right there's just there's so much so much activity so much information across all of these committees that that a lot of us are serving on and and certainly with all of your responsibility um but it'd be great to maybe I'd suggest maybe start at the website you know make sure that a lot of this stuff is just on there for you know that's where people may start to look but but you're right there's a there's a there's a void that could be built well just a thought yeah I mean I love the Synergy idea could there be even like a little mini list serve of all the chairs of these committees like that people could just quickly message each other of key things that are coming up like is there any is there any way that those folks are linked together like Jackie are you I don't think you are like are you on a have you on a list along with the chair of the rec department along all those different chairs where there could just be like a little list serve group I think that would be incredibly helpful because people would either send a press release if it's something that's significant or give an update for the week or the next few weeks who's this this public information sitting as the Aon on a because Lally Board of Education Rec committee joint committee uh bid said uh Township committee I see it all I could Point them right in the right direction say because even when you're at the Board of Education there's two students who are updating the the Board of Education every week of every they they could it'd be nice if the public information you know even just could could uh mirror me for week and I say here introduce them here here here and get you know you know email say here or streamline the process have the students uh you know email you this is you know upcoming events and then you run it by the public information officer for posting on the Tang that's why I was recommending no no no I'm saying not it doesn't have to be you but but but that's why I was saying a list serve so that it's not on any one person like if you just just form a little list of 20 people offer take the to [Music] righty our public just just for a point of clarification our public information officer is on leave at this point we'll be back in March but you're covering right working on it working on March is only couple weeks correct so these are these are good notes to I'm taking the notes on just discussion there's a reality right when so ma is I guess the interim public information officer um but the reality is it's easy for her to reach out to me or Amanda we're in town hall in town hall we're full time you know it's a little tough when you're trying to track down a volunteer who maybe has an hour or two a month to pay attention it's you know I I think you're right there has to be a little bit more of a proactive stance from from the town to say give us your information let's consult consolidate and put it out wait but isn't there also an opportunity for you know where your jersey you're the volleyball team wear your jersey and you buy two slices of pizza and you get the third one free There's an opportunity for that's yeah that's the opportunity it really is I mean I am going back 35 years but 35 years you wear your J you get sliced in a sh right right but but I think I I still think 10 to five years ago didn't the girls do that time used to do that yeah you guys did that we did it was they were basketball playing the team and stuff right the middle school all they come in yeah yeah no even on our website we could congratulate the teams that are winning like I didn't know that we were yeah you know yeah we can yeah definitely have that conversation with high school but but two is and I I I just you know I somehow I'm now trained on asking a question wherever I go in town I unfortunately my family I go out to eat a lot is tell me about restaurant week and they everybody just gets that same look as they want more buying want more people to know about it so we just got to get that word out and just drive drive traffic because there's really good deals it's like I remember living in Manhattan we all salivate for go into Imperial Palace and you get ping duck for 32 bucks or whatever it is um so i' I've started doing safe the dates we have at this point um we have 18 restaurants signed up uh and I'll pass that out as well um so what happened last year and it was the first year we did it is that um we really pushed social media last year last year we had a ton of influencers and we had the restaurants do what they were capable of so it wasn't necessarily just prefixed or something else um I got a lot of different feedback from people including Lada and um so this year we've been pushing um a variety of menu so either you know flights prefix tastings we need to make it more interesting for people to come to it and also um encouraging people to have some type of entertainment so in our kickoff meeting Restaurant Week at Opportunity project there are some residents there that are part of our um advisory committee meeting committee and they were saying we want something to do with the kids so they were like you know some kind of Sunday runch something with a magician something like that these things aren't that expensive so um we have and I'll pass it around um we have been giving a ton of information to the restaurants on how they can participate um we also have um Karen from real style exchange she's helping me with the followup um because part of the problem last year was people would sign up they'd say they're doing something and then it wouldn't make it the next four or five weeks someone goes there they don't even realize it's Restaurant Week in this in the in the place so there's a lot of things we're doing to make this a stronger event and then also to do the marketing for that um so I I anticipate this being a really really nice uh um year for us are we still doing the influencers yeah and they were very effective right and what that was another thing which was about um Equity is that we will make sure every restaurant that is participating is included with at least one influencer because last year you know the influencers like to do their own thing they like you know they do their top five they do their top three or they have favorite places they like to go so this is going to be managed much more closely and have requirements um with them so that everyone gets their fair share of attention let's all spread the word yeah and certainly March 17th is a Sunday suay when you see our stuff on social media where you see email blast you know please send it out tag people let them know you know that's the beauty of digital communication um then we will be hitting the streets with posters and all the rest of it so yeah about three weeks out we get the banner up and we start putting the posters out um but the other things are going to start coming into play in the next two weeks um this this is a fast event for us uh next year will be like my plan next year is to work on this in the summer so that we can start January one um but I think we've made a lot of progress with getting our full event schedule and all of that other stuff done up until this point um so but always open to suggestions and definitely about your experience this year um any other questions about this document that was just item one I know okay so so um the Metropolitan um I had a meeting with them today at their corporate headquarters which is on Mars turnike in Short Hills and it's a garden communities is the uh the owner um this is going phenomenally well um just some uh notes uh we have over 50 businesses participating in one way or another we have um I'll just review just pass them around yeah so there are I think six ways that we discuss with the Metropolitan for our businesses to engage with their residents uh one of them is the the welcome bag you know normally you if you're leasing a place they give you some type of you know there's water bottles and this or that so they have a welcome bag we are going to have a explore you know welcome envelope with all these postcards these are just examples there's going to be at least 30 I anticipate closer to 40 um and these are these are uh businesses that are giving you know percentages off or offering Something Free and to go to the kpis and metrics Ben that you brought up in the last meeting I've asked all of them to um use some type of code that reflects the Metropolitan or at least have a say welcome to the metropolitans so when they collect these things when they're brought into the shops and Serv Services we can then go to them and say how many people came in um from this campaign which is something I plan to do quarterly just because they're going to continue to have movements and waves so um it's it's a really awesome uh way to promote the businesses get something in people's hands and um so right now we have like I said 30 um that are participating in the postcard aspect of it the um the next uh part of it is just little promotional items to put in that welcome bag so we have I think it's five or six businesses doing that um Milburn camera there's the one there's a I can't think of the agency um and coell Banker uh no not Banker um paper mill they're doing a pen a really nice pen um I think Reena from Keller Williams is going to do a potato chip clip so there's little things like that that are going to go in there we have home instead's giving us a uh reusable bag so I anticipate a few more items coming in for that they're going to go in those bags as well and then we have the leasing office um opportunity we confirm today how many they are willing to put five Plexi plexiglass out the 8 and a half by 11 size featuring one business each uh the um ethical mattress is going to go in probably tomorrow he already designed a flyer and they accepted it um K and Co is going to get one game changer Fitness Pure Bar and I'm working on the fifth these are businesses that are either related to things you need to move in or or like the fitness type thing is is what they agree to promote that's a really great deal does this cost anything to the I mean it just like put put up your banner right it's it's not costing them anything it's costing it's they marketing you know whatever their deal they're giving but and they're paying for the production the postcard the the businesses are paying for the production of their postcards their own postcard yeah right so that's the leasing office which is great um they also we we uh almost finalized it today um places like live breads wants to give a h packet of cookies to each resident um I know taste buddy wants to do something similar so um for them they've decided that they want to give that opportunity when they open their pool Memorial Day weekend so so to have you know vendors like they asked if you know hog and do would come and have ice cream things like that so I'll be reaching out to the people that were interested in the perishable gifts and see who can attend that um that we also had the opportunity to promote things in their Lobby they are if I was taste buddy I would open a carier service in that Lobby to God I I would put I would move somebody in that Lobby just hand it some just hand it Lally get a high school oh my girl or guy St conier taste buddy conier pump you know good smells actually not a bad idea go up into the hbac system and start baking cookies I live near em& Mars once and it was literally like chocolate pollution so um but yeah so they've decided they think they'll probably do some type of vendor fair in their lobby but later in the year when more people are there so everyone that's expressing interest I'll let them know we're going to put a pin in it and come back to that and then the final item is people that want to offer services so like the infusions they'll offer to come into your home and provide you with your vitamin C IV or something like that so we're going to have a a sheet that has those different Services listed and those will be given to every resident so those are the the main things um there besides the fact that we're going to continue that relationship and they're going to help sponsor the upper Milbourne Avenue day which hopefully will also encourage the residents of the Metropolitan to come to Upper Milburn ab and the other parts of the community um does anybody have any questions about Metropolitan how many have people have started moving in how many did they give you did they share any I think it's under I want to say it's under 20 okay um they see them coming in in waves starting in April they anticipate being at full capacity by the end of 2024 okay um related to that um I've in touch with Hearth Milburn which is the old Wells Fargo Building uh We've provided them with the list of downtown businesses that's what they want to list on their website um we've also provided them with images and other things and it's not concrete but it looks like we'll be able to put something in their welcome packets as well and that's another 50 units did they have a leasing office also I yeah so so you may have another opportunity to Mir the same thing this is a little bit later probably like a May June timeline yes but we're taking those steps nowy wise you should replicate that at the and he says there at Woodland at Woodmont yeah you know Ben at the January meeting you had suggested coming up with some sort of what we'll call it kpi Loosely but you know how do we quantify this and learn for future with at least two more prod projects plus you know whatever happens over on Woodland Woodmont Woodland um yeah this this is the opportunity for us to do what is really one of the core and unique functions of an improvement district which is collective marketing right if every single business did this on their own it wouldn't work but this is collective marketing this is volume this is organization this is one of those tough projects that a Sid has to do and Amanda is doing a great job but I think having 50 businesses signed on already is terrific so let's see how it goes and we'll keep repeating it and hopefully it's successful for our business yeah and I will say uh like with the Metropolitan they prefer to have us as the liaison versus having 500 businesses knocking on their doors so it's a service to them too yes um yeah okay so moving on the advisory committee roster um I think I just need to review this Steve was there anything else you wanted me to do okay yeah so um as you guys know every January we present you guys with an advisory committee list that's attachment five in your packets um this is required by the bylaws um this is made up of business owners as well as residents um residents is a new edition this year um so we've got a bunch as well on there now one two three four at least as I quickly count um 17 attachment five yep there are 17 members uh five residents or four residents the remainders are business owners um this group is meant to be kind of a sounding board for General ideas policies events and then ideally can also serve as a training ground for a potential board member so I think the original list we presented was 20 or 21 um Amanda had a meeting in January a couple of the folks decided that they didn't want to participate so at this point um we have 17 folks and U we'll just continue to those those are quarterly meetings um but shouldn't they be required to come to the meetings and fill up the pews well then they might ask questions might be here all night we should be educated if we're a part of let's make that a suggestion they they are actually um they're very good at their meetings we do talk a lot about what happens at these board meetings uh I wish some of them would come um especially you know we can cultivate them as board members go when some of you eventually leave I well tough part is getting any of you out of your seats is I do want to uh emphasize that having the addition of residence to the advisory committee this year has been invaluable so I think that's been can you put an invite up to the board members to their advisory meeting so we know when they are yep I I I have gone in the past I did not go to this one pardon me how many you no I went to them allall last year I was the Le yeah we have an official liaison this year like you should have that role you were in that role last yes I was in that role last year we didn't get anybody to step up last time but we can certainly at our January and I'm running them at this point I don't know yeah we can ask for yeah we got we got very valuable feedback um last year about the lighting in lot 16 behind um right was it lot 16 lot 14 that we we we brought that forward and um it was a concern for you know during the holidays when when it when it gets dark earlier and we that was addressed with the township so it there is a lot of value and this is a great list of people actually yeah the meetings generally are earlier in the morning before now you change we had that now you Chang yeah they're normally I think it's uh 5:30 5:30 6:30 they're done by okay um okay um moving on to Restaurant Week pass so she gets paid by the hour um so this is our image for this year we've stuck with The Branding from last year which was established from the marketing committee and we' held that through all the events throughout the year um again we're um pushing the Sunday brunch uh option opportunity project is also our partner again and um this just is something that we had sent out to all of the businesses and also something that Karen has been taking when she's been popping in to talk to people about Restaurant Week get them signed up so just a couple this is the current list of uh restaurants that are signed up as of this uh evening uh so there's 18 and um just see the paper mill Playhouse uh their Carriage House is signed up they're going to be doing some pretty awesome stuff I'm waiting for them to confirm before I can say anything but they have really stepped up to the plate with that um and then um the Verde Harvest I think I mentioned again they are giving 20% off wholesale prices to restaurants for that week only if they want to order their products and where are they located they're on Main Street on the second floor they're an indoor Farm um so they micro yeah so they're they're right above um cross and Taylor Park where teen skin yeah so I think that's 93 main um there's three tenants above one of them is ver Harvest um the woman moved there I guess probably about a year and a half ago and so it's an indoor Farm it's all hydroponic um so it's just green stacked on top of each other um and the good news is so it's not a retail um it's not a retail operation um what she does is she does delivery to homes um so and businesses so and then this there's a B2B option where Amanda asked her you know how do we get locally sourced greens to the restaurants they're going to do it during restaurant week and I have some sad but good news which is she will be leaving that space soon because her operation has gotten so successful she needs more room so she's going to stay in Milburn but um probably in a larger more industrial space but whenever whenever I lose a chick out of the nest I want them at least to go to a bigger nest so in the Township in the tree yes in the tree but a bigger nest so the paper mill The Carriage Houses is participating now they are they going to be help are they helping us Market yeah so tomorrow I'm getting out all of the templates um to promote for restaurant so I'm sending them to all the businesses now when I just have a specific question now when the carriage when when the paper mill does the marketing is it only for the carriage house or are they going to carry got one are they going to carry I mean they want they're going to use the branding for restaurant it be great you know I know from one of the last meetings I know from one of the last meetings that the has 100,000 person email list and it would be just great to make sure that they carry a full menu for all the businesses and that would be and and if we can get on that 100,000 mailing list for all the restaurants including the Carro that would home but I mean that's the whole point is um is I did this last year and doing again this year and the paper mill requested it so I'm getting that out is is our branded templates for this event so our colors our images everything and then they add you know want to make sure it's included you know in their their stuff we um we have Cody now that we're working with and he's phenomenal so we'll be talking about the different um ways that they can help us just to clarify Richard though I think you're saying for Paper Mill to promote restaurant week overall to all their folks not just their just to clarify I can I can ask as much as I can I can't for aous marketing machine right no absolutely absolutely I'm not sure is paper mill dark that week yes that's why we plann this that week okay um so anyway uh I guess the copies I made didn't come out quite right but um we're encouraging people I gave them a list of potential entertainment that they could have um whether that's uh having some type of vocalist singing you know every half hour during breaks whether it's having you know magic show for a Sunday brunch for kids um there's uh people called um Pizza acrobats where they toss the dough and do like a show with stuff like that so I'm I'm not asking the restaurants to you know try and figure it all out on their own we're trying to get them this much information and as uh many resources as possible um so again part of having Karen help us is she's she's going there getting them signed up now the next thing is what are you gonna do um this so this list is not complete right no that's just as of today so can you add a add a Milburn Ramen zero sushi and and uh and U did they tell you that they're going to participate they will participate we don't haveo is on our meeting listo at mil bur zero Su at Milburn Ramen and just tell them I said that we should the other thing I will say um last year we did have struggles with some of the um businesses with language barriers and so um I had uh prepared for Karin U when she was going and popping in other place a registration form that that was in uh Vietnamese uh Korean Chinese uh Thai Spanish and English so we trying to get past that barrier at least to get people signed up and then we can go from there okay um I think I've covered uh most of that uh any other questions about Restaurant Week no but we have our meeting right before restaurant week so we'll have another bite at the Apple to make sure that right our meeting is March 14th you could add Splurge that list too Splurge I'm sure will be on yeah did we get taste buddy too are they they're notoriously difficult to deal with just managing for management problems management issu yeah really um any other too busy putting the cookies in the HB nice okay um all right this is this is really great great great stuff yes it's really coming along um okay so mil school's Wellness week so this is a new project and get my notes um so the school system is required to have a wellness week it's going to be May 6th to May 10th and um i' I've have a relationship with Nancy Drees already and so she brought me into the fold with this and um we're working with the head of nursing with the school system and then representative from the different schools uh what we're doing is um for the elementary schools we're providing assemblies with three focuses self-care nutrition and fitness and so far we have sweet Toth Pediatrics signed up to do some of the assemblies for self-care for nutrition we have spring bone signed up I have a call with pliables um an admin for pbls tomorrow and then for Fitness we have f45 signed up swim Quest signed up and I'm working on a couple of the others to fill those spaces but this has been going extremely well um and it's I what I've really liked about these projects is it's getting different businesses involved you know it's not just boutiques it's it's other places so um that's going to continue to progress we are also going to provide Wellness for the teacher lounges um I have one River arino and green door who are all going to manage uh the different lounges with activi that the uh staff can do on their own like U one of them um One River is going to have hand drawn mandalas from the artists there they're make making copies of those and then they're going to provide the markers and other things so those will be out at people's Leisure they can do these activities arino is going to do one big canvas and have the paints there and have um uh outlines on it so people can go and contribute to it and so then at the end it's this piece that represents the staff they can hang it they can decide what they want to do with it and then Green Door is still putting together details as to what they will be doing um I have proposed a um program for the middle school students and that involves self-care uh reflecting on technology all the issues kids have with their hands and their necks and everything um skin care and then um skin care for athletes um of the things they try to get to is the hygiene issue with the kids kind of going through that you know 12 to 15 age so we're we're going at it in a I think a delicate way Amanda question you might be doing this already can we just make sure with the assemblies obviously the assemblies are front-facing to the kids just that in whatever Communications the schools have going out that week that they are including info for the parents like this week your kids to do Fitness with f45 and whatever maybe those businesses even want to include like a special offer or something like mention Fitness week just to tie it back because obviously the parents are going to be the well I I have told people the stuff customers so this is a soft sell they are not there to sell stuff to the kids of course um but they can information families know but I say even just letting families know that they were in the schools and like what they did even if it's not a direct we can get our own social media contact oh yeah absolutely I'll be I'll be there probably most we talk so May 6th to 10th is the high school it's the whole thing it's the whole it's the whole all schools yeah it's elementary through high school so we've been working on it in phases with the programming so with the elementary schools they do assemblies with the uh Middle School it's going to be little um almost like health fairs where they'll have three different businesses set set up the kids sit for 10 minutes at each one and they revolve around um we have not discussed the layout for the high school students yet but that'll probably happen in the next 10 days um so just kind of following um their lead and it's we've it's been a mutually it's a really great experience so I'll bring you updates as I have them what's going to happen in the lounges so in the lounges uh it's two things one is um One River arino and green door are doing art activities that people can do on their own um or share so I I had mentioned with one River they're gonna have mandala uh coloring sheets and the markers and things and people can color those at their Leisure as kind of an art therapy you know relaxation thing um arino is going to have a giant canvas with an a the outline of an image on it and they'll provide the paints and brushes and then people can pick up and paint a section of it um let's talk about too um yeah that's a part of another um effort um and then Green Door is still working out what they're doing and then the other part of it is getting uh puzzles and games for the um faculty lounges so K and Co already gave us a game and then I'm doing followup next week uh with the rest of the businesses that would be selling those types of items I I would just you know be very sensitive to a lot of different people different students and such as well so right um okay so that's Wellness week let me get to could I I'm just thinking on Wellness week and what picking up I think what Tracy was mentioning somehow to Circle back and think about how to benefit businesses in an indirect way like back to parents and things because it's it's a great program and I I think it's a good idea but I keep thinking well how would that help the business community and how can we creatively sort of get the names out of the you know the companies the businesses that are participating how can we I don't that yeah no but with Nancy Dre's newsletter that goes out to the to the um entire School Community maybe the Friday before you have we have a link to what's happening at the individual schools with some you know some promotions or whatever is you know stop by and it has to be a big thank you all these businesses for offering your time effort and resources toote thank you promote it sum and one after so you people get the hint yeah get your behind in that store and buy something or do something and help reward the pillars of the community for spending their resources to help your your son or daughter or he they see whatever did go in there we will come back with more that you could use the you could use the the triangle you could use the high school yeah you yeah because they should be rewarded for yes absolutely Community Partnership a collaboration okay um so I think we're on to founding day um Jackie did you want to start sure I mean I I kind of uh have a little summary prepared so we've had two meetings so far see uh seed it is a seeda driven event with explorers partnership and the other ancillary groups that are involved thus far are uh environmental commission Green Team climate action uh historic what am I missing you want so uh the Chinese Association no no no not that I'm just talking about the organizations not the wheels yet that I'll I'll so so we have 13 Community organizations that will be participating in the wheel designs you want to list those and then I'll go on to the rest of the program um so the Chinese Association Kora Haram Arboretum um the Korean parents organization and Milburn Korean School Milburn climate action Milburn Municipal Alliance committee Milbourne Short Hills Desi Club Milbourne Short Hills Historical Society Milbourne Short Hills Chamber of Commerce um Muslims of Milbourne and Short Hills neighborhood house Nursery School paper mill Playhouse the neighbors of Milbourne Short Hills and uh the congregation B isra Israel yes congregation Israel preschool um and so they is the library Li the library because that Mill wheel out there is really sad looking I saw it the other day um can we reach out to them that's just we reach out to everybody yeah I'm so surprised like friends of Library didn't want to they said that they were okay yeah well darthy Kelly who's on the Historical Society also one of the friends of Library they didn't want to do anything with it I have to say that Mill wheel outside the library looks very sorry like I feel like it would be better not to have it there I think it it I I think if we're going to do the new M wheel project I think we need to ask them well I'm I'm also I want to suggest potentially ask them to retire it because look shabby and it makes it we're retiring another one which is at the rackets Club um so I have to go and I don't know what others think but I don't think it let talk to mik okay yeah so those those they'll be following a uh robust design submission um engagement uh protocol the day of the event we will have live music from 1 to 3 the Milbourne Short Hills Historical Society will be doing walking tours there'll be visits with milburn's founding Family characters period games for children historic boards that talk about the Milbourne Short Hills and the establishment of Taylor Park and Mrs Taylor's other contributions including Neighborhood House which she is a Founder the activities around the B Center will include chalk squares cornhole lawn games and some novelty distribution then we'll have some other tables for um some of our other um Historical Society will have a table paper mill is also a very important part of our iconic history they're working on what their activities will be uh the environmental commission at noon will be uh PRI Patel will be leading a park cleanup for students and young members of the community and uh following up about information about plastic waste in the park and in the river and what we can do um the environmental commission has a meeting next week so they're working on that um the uh climate action may be also doing the um the uh milk weed planting for people to put together and take home and as I mentioned there'll be these games we're working with Explorer on that so the date is May 18th with a rain date of May 19th so um I just want to encourage any everybody to participate it it should be a a pretty exciting day I think um I'm excited about it and you know it's five years ago that we did the mill wheel so so it's hard to believe it's five years um so and we have Michael Cooper working with us as a partner who so and and the and these wheels will be um uh will be better able to to withstand the elements and once finish will be throughout our five districts um so Steve so we'll be working on keeping them a little bit more I know I mentioned the last Mee want to reiterate um the cost of getting these wheels refurbished and then all done is actually coming out of our S6 County public art Grant so it's not coming out of our general operating budget it's coming out of a line specifically for public art just want to confirm as at other events we'll have like our Explorer postcards like we'll be Distributing information and this would be nice also I'd love to see us have a less manual event than we less manual ual process than we had at the igloo in terms of email collection like if we could have like QR codes or even you know like chance to win a $100 gift certificate to a business of your choice everyone who like signs up for our email list today like just use these opportunities to build our email list good idea promote our businesses but I say something that doesn't I feel like that was we collected a lot of info but the manual sheets were very labor intensive but we just have a QR code and it's like everyone who signs up today is entered to like a chance to win something but Jackie do we have any of the family members from the founders of the town the Taylor family or any true like has any I'm just curious yeah we're we're C the Historic Society has a lot of information about those families that they'll be sharing in on posters and boards but to the best of my knowledge we do not have um but the actors do come back actors yeah it' just be cool if it was like oh my great great you know whatever yeah um okay I guess that would be some yeah something to certainly explore um if any of the Rel no no no you're you're 100 um yeah and well cor Haron never got married so she was single and so I don't know if there are any relatives on the but or Mrs Taylor I don't know what her don't look at me like you want me to go find I'm busy the Historical Society M yeah okay girls night girls night out all right um so we've had two meetings so far and um everything's off to a good start I will get the save the date out next week because I finish Restaurant Week tomorrow um just some highlights reminder it's June 9th and um June 8th is that right sorry June I have a Pap on my sheet um the committee Vicki from charas um nadesh who's a property owner in town um Kelly and Karen from real style exchange and Jean from SLT my skin so they all participated last year really great uh symmetry with the group and wanted to continue um as I mentioned so this year our theme is going to be kind of the mermaid experience mermaids symbolize many things including female power luck renewal and um so we're going to have things available like the salons will be able to do mermaid hair or do like beach themed things on your nails um and um uh what do you call it and they'll be able also a lot of them have the um airbrushed AB ility to make it look like you have scales and things like that so we're working on getting those put together girls are weird yeah don't put that in the minutes that's the end of that um uh we're g to do a beach bag instead of a swag bag to kind of go with the beach theme um there's going to be we're gonna have more DJs uh live music just didn't really work last year so the DJs really get the party going um and we're going to do the Lays instead of handing out the Roses right yes um so that was something that was a lot of fun a lot of the um guys from the high school were handing them out to people even in their cars while they were you know at the red lights and stuff and people had a great time and um me just see if there's anything else you have a rain date or no rain date I think it's the next yeah next the next week next week um so we have a lot of other little things we're doing that are special that I don't want to give away away yet um but it's going to be from 5:30 to 8:30 and um we're going to encourage some of the uh the businesses that cater to children to do things um related to mermaids in the beach at four o'clock so an after school type activity where parents pick up their kids and can go and do something um because they wouldn't be planning on doing something that evening um with children so we want to add that aspect to it and we're also going to have a VIP um Afterparty for uh the committee advisory committee board sponsors and all of the businesses that participate in that um so working on on getting that taken care of you know where that will be we're looking to do it at Joey's um but I I still have to sit down with them so there's much more to it just want to keep it simple but um biggy I don't know if you have anything else to add but did you say the date was June 8 yeah yeah it's on a Saturday no the 8th's a Thursday Thursday what year are you looking at 2024 June 6 oh June 6th I made the typo you know why June 8th is my father's birthday it must have been in my head there we go okay what date is it June June so if you want to go celebrate Steve's father on the um but yeah so that's dday yes the uh the report so far um any questions are we I remember last year came up with the crossing guards we want to make sure that we we have uh you know crossing guards in place make sure it's safe we will do that thanks for all the work on all this there a lot going on yeah we're only six weeks into the year um anything else can and the rain date is the following week the following Thursday um do we know when the roads will be like repaved and stuff cuz with restaurant week in March will will they be cleaned up like we've had no parking signs up in front of splurge on Main Street for I think it's for a week that there's no I know that'll be gone that'll be all gone will the street because those it's it's just hard driving it's very bumpy on Church Street it's really kind of hard to drive on I'm just curious if if we're putting all this effort into a restaurant where we trying to bring people in in the streets are are yeah I think the the spr what is it the Washington section yeah it should be done relatively soon in repave but it's it's awful driving through there um the the parking restrictions on Maine will be over by then um we do have construction going on of the parking deck um so I sent some uh Communications out this week um the third deck is closed for construction um but what we've done is um kind of reconfigured Shopper parking and business parking on the second level um to try to make up for those spaces but that project will not be complete uh by then but hopefully the the Washington area will be repaid by then because I spill my coffee every morning really hard it's really bad thank you thank you okay executive director's report this will not take as long I promise you it will be quick um so the first thing is um on January 19th Amanda and I had a meeting with some members actually seven members of the Chinese Association in town um the the impetus for the meeting was concerns that we've heard from both sides um business owners as well as the Chinese residents about just the lack of cooperation and buying in town and and um how they've embrace the local retail community and so I wanted to understand uh are there cultural barriers what are some of the reasons that uh a sizable Chinese community in this town doesn't seem to shop in this town um and so I wanted to start with a data point um 2010 um 7 uh considered white alone that is now 56% so it's dropped 21% um in the last 13 years um but the increase in asian-americans went from 155% to 33% and so we've been talking about that the Asian Community represents a third of this community um it's a huge economic block and so we consider our responsibility to try to dive into why there are these challenges and so um we have a long way to go on this but we had a very productive two-hour meeting um and and so there's a couple things that that came out of it I thought very interesting um they they say that you know there's a lot of Chinese Cultural Customs when it comes to shopping that are not reflected here so um one of them is is they expect a shopkeeper to give them a very personal and warm welcome um that in China that is typical in America people kind of like why you talking to me like that it's kind of too much um and so that's that's one thing um we talked about you know why do they not necessarily buy clothing in downtown why do they buy it at the mall so there's certain brands that they can only get at the mall and those are the brands that they want for various reasons um they feel like they have not been doing a good job of building relationships with owners and vice versa um and that's something they'd like to correct um they talked about word of mouth as being probably their most important way of getting information out um they have a couple of like top performers new palombos you know the auto shop they did a good job for a couple of Chinese residents word got out that's where they go um Jack Seafood is their number one spot they said like that is the top place for the Chinese residents to go in town to get the the fish dishes at Jacks uh because a word of mouth um they also have night I don't know anything about it I suppose but um that we don't have a lot of authentic Chinese restaurants and that other surrounding communities do and so they feel like they go to these other communities because they're looking for a very specific type of dining experience um they talked about the difference in who shops at the mall and who doesn't um the older residents the the parents and the grandparents tend to go to the mall um because of the brands that I mentioned also it's enclosed it's indoors um however they say the kids have no interest in going to the mall the kids want to be in the community they want to walk the sidewalks they want to go into different shops and I mean if you just sit here at Town Hall at 3 o'clock in the afternoon you can see um all of these these uh Chinese American children so that's encouraging um then we talked about communication and this is where I I was really fascinated um they first of all they suggested I guess to Ben's Point earlier is the town could do a much better job of communicating to the Chinese business Community um residents as well you know some of these residents are involved in real estate they're involved in finance they want to do more business in town but there is a language barrier um and so again we have a long way to go with that but I you know they said have why not have translation services in town hall um where you know how do you get a permit how do you sign up for this or get a parking pass or whatever it is um and then also it we spent a lot of time on digital communication and so um I was completely unaware of this but they they spend a lot of uh their time communicating about deals in town so you know if Splurge Bakery has a promo going on they have these distribution lists on WeChat um Tik Tock twango um something called Little Red Book twang gal which is a Groupon type of app and then there's something called uh xhs which is the Chinese version of Instagram and so they said if you really want to get the communication out to the the Chinese Community you need to as a business owner be involved in these apps and these communication platforms so um I had never heard of any of that stuff so that was very interesting so in terms of next steps um that Asian Community is not just Chinese right um we have a huge Indian population here so we'd like to replicate what we did with the Chinese Community with the Indian Community um and then offer at some point some type of maybe in this room um just a back and forth between residents business owners and Community leaders to talk about some of these cultural differences um some of them are fairly benign right it's it's just a matter of understanding that that's that these are the expectations between both and you know I had said as a fifth generation American you know some of the things that you're telling me I would never think of or they think that they're bizarre and so we have to find a little bit of a common ground between what you as a first or second generation Chinese American versus you know folks that have been in this country longer how do we find happy balance between the Customs um and then they did offer to help us translate into Chinese for various events and things so I thought it was an exceptionally interesting and productive meeting awes it's something that we're going to work on and you know try to continue to bring you guys updates those steps one suggestion would be some class for business owners to understand the cultural so every time we do dwali cakes or we did Lunar New Year we had we had items in the bakery they were s they sold and they were super appreciative that it was recognized and and you know we could do so much more of that but I'm naive right I don't know the holidays and the tradition so I would think discussions are great but then actually likeing some training yeah just so we can learn I was having a similar F like could we do a webinar like an online like a panel Multicultural tradition high level like just yeah I think once we have this meeting with the Indian Community and we consolidate some of the the main issues we can have that as a community wide discussion with the business owners and these resident these these res I mean would they also be interested this is really great and it's so important um would they be open to or interested in having like a representative on our advisory Council I think we absolutely get them that yeah really the um you know even just going through the election for Township committee uh it's I think it's actually 37 or 38% Indian American and Chinese American population in bbsh Hills and it'll be north of 50% in by 2030 uh easily um and you know we were just at the uh Lunar New Year celebration on Sunday um and Annette myself Frank and uh and um Michael Cohen we were hosted there it was unbelievable just such a fantastic um event and collaboration of of the Milburn Short Hills Chinese American population uh and and we were at indianamerican um Independence Day uh and it's just such a fa fabulous to integrate into the business Community is a must talk about dollars to spend and money to invest into the community uh and spot on the mall if you can translate a fraction of money that's spent at the mall into Milbourne promer and it's it's actually something that's a big part of the Main Street application I'll talk about momentarily um they break it down into threeyear fivey year and 10y year goals and um I included you know this integration of culture is not going to happen overnight but it's the kind of thing that as a community we we have to all work together to understand where there are commonalities and where there's differences and how we bridge that and it's a clich thing to say but when we're talking about Economic Development there are we have to get that information out to our Merchants about when when a Chinese American customer comes in they have certain expectations and those Chinese American customers also need to know that there are certain expectations of that um that shopkeeper and absolutely and and also too understanding the different the the Chinese American culture and the indian-american culture in the indian-american culture there's multiple classes multiple people to cater to same thing in the Chinese American culture how do you do business in that culture it's very very diff you know very different than an American culture one thing that came out of the discussion when we we talked about the brands at the mall they said well you got to think of China as two different countries because in Hong Kong we've had high-end Brands forever it's a highly capitalized Island then you go to other people they've never had the ability to have a brand before right they live in a communist state and so two people from the same country right have two different experiences when it comes to shopping for brands that that's the Nuance of this right so in India and in India it's three different three three different Tres right so it's uh it's very different I think this is all going to bring us to a higher level of customer service I think we'll end up being a community that's leading that when it comes to uh cultures and diversity so moving on uh continuing about I guess education so we do have four education sessions coming up um I'm going to pass this Lex you in charge of this again by virtue of sitting there um so we have four sessions coming up um with different government agencies or private vendors um all of these are donated services so we have not had to spend any money on this that includes um the one we've already completed which was done with Premier creative on SEO search engine optimization um so it'll be at least five sessions without any cost to us which is terrific um the first one is actually uh next Wednesday February 21st it's on Zoom it's with the New Jersey Economic Development Authority they're going to be speaking about different small business grant programs um so there are grants for interior and exterior Renovations um there is a program to help you pay your lease costs as a small business um and then they're also going to talk about Capital Access fund and the emerging U developers fund which is for folks that might be interested in doing larger Capital Improvements uh to their properties uh the second one is uh related to njeda this is the program we've talked about a number of times the e-commerce program which is the free website program David sorin is one of the Consultants that does this work um and so he's going to be present David sorin New Frontier which is located here in town he'll be presenting on that on March 7th then we have uh a presentation from the New Jersey business Action Center so the assistant director Jeff fer is going to be speaking on Friday March 22nd also on Zoom um this is a kind of business assistance uh organization run through the state which helps with permitting and U financing and other things that that come to um small businesses and so um it's definitely be a good thing for people in the town to understand this resource exists as well um and then the fourth session is a digital marketing and social media session on April 26 that's going to be a lunch and learn here and it's also going to be a Live cast um and that's going to be presented by Stafford media Consulting Ross Stafford is a Milburn resident who has a a marketing and digital media companies so um all four of those are open to everyone uh in the Sid and then uh what first time this year we are partnering with the Chamber of Commerce and so we're opening this up uh to all of the chamber members as well so hopefully we'll get some nice cross pollination um of attendees and Sid members can be chamber members and vice versa but um you know we're all about business modernization and trying to influence technology and so those are the four sessions between now and April and then the business Action Center uh we are working on a business Action Center Sid chamber mixer that's going to be at the Short Hills Hilton probably at the end of May so that'll be an in-person um session probably two hours on a business topic and then there'll be a mixer afterwards so once we nail down a date and time we'll let you know so five events essentially coming up in the next quarter or so and that's just for the next quarter right I mean or you you think you'll wow so what else do you want no no I mean no no I'm just saying um but um Jeff buer right isn't he uh DCA no he used to be the DCA he used main he's now with the business Action Center okay yeah and how how long do we know how long the state's going to offer those free websites for I uh I don't think there's a sunset at this point so that's an incredible deal I think if it continues to be funded by the legislature it'll continue doing it I mean I just keep saying it I just hope all of our businesses know that yeah do apply yeah I had that's worth thousands of dollars I had a business owner stopped me in the parking lot uh Jesse came by uh he says but business owner stopped me she says I have to ask you my husband says it can't be true the state isn't giving free websites and I said no they are I said you pay a lot in taxes take advantage he says no my husband doesn't believe I said do you want me to make him a video I'll tell him it's like what do you need so um okay next on to Main Street so at the as as Ben mentioned at the onset the township committee uh unanimously approved a resolution to allow explore to apply to the Main Street program through the state um so we are applying as the C3 on behalf of the township um it is quite a cumbersome application I'm probably about 80% of the way through but you can ask amand it's pretty much the only thing I've done for the last week um and it's it's it's coming along really really well um but what I would really like is if anybody on the board is interested in serving on a Review Committee um probably early March um once I have a finalized document um if anybody would like to read it just check through it make sure that it makes sense it's a it's a somewhat uh it's very specific application because the Main Street program requires what they call the fourpoint approach and so there's four uh Economic Development placemaking themes that have to be met throughout the application so it's a bit challenging to write but if there's um if anybody's interested um please just grab me after the meeting or you know shoot me a text but I'd like we'd like to do kind of an person Workshop go through the document yeah I'd be happy to help okay okay um so we'll shoot for early March and then the due date is the 15th so we want to get it in before then but I'd say I'll probably have it finished by the middle of next week um or the first draft I should say um and then moris Turnpike beautification um can I ask sorry can I ask I know I missed there might have been earlier discussion about Main Street I don't know anything got discussed Beyond approval at TC no okay so can I just ask a couple of questions just having heard some questions both at our meetings and watching the TC meeting just want to confirm is there a cost any type of cost to apply no or to join okay and I know you had shared previously it opens up resources and grants we're not and again it just gives us the access to that and then the process for if we're hopefully accepted then the process of deciding what we're going to pursue or are interested in would be subsequent yeah Ben actually asked that at the at the TC meeting so um being accepted in the Main Street program doesn't trigger anything all it allows you to do is then be eligible for program so the way that they do it is the state offers technical assistance they don't offer money the federal Main Street program which funnels um which supports the state programs they offer uh grant funding so um let's say the ideal process right is the township says we want to fix crosswalks in town whatever it is right we can then go to the state the state will provide the Consulting Services develop the work plan and then we can go to the federal Main Street program and apply for the grant money to execute the project so it's it's a little it's a little strange that the state does one thing and the FEDS do the other but okay great I say I know we've been waiting several years for this opportunity to apply yeah so I say I'm just I am puzzled hearing from some community members of wanting to to stop the application from going through so I'm honestly just confused about that and I just I'm hopeful that that everyone will reconsider their efforts because it just sounds like a win-win for mburg that all these other towns are part of Main Street they're getting tens of thousands of dollarss or hundreds of thousands of dollars so I'm so thank you for working on the application and thank you for volunteering to review it it just it just sounds like a total win-win do you think should we have like FAQs on our website or something so if there are people who have these basic questions does it cost anything no does it you know I don't know if there's that much so there's an FAQ discuss um that's provided by the state on their website we can absolutely put that out we put to committee uh do I think you even put the uh did you even put the minutes put the link the link with the minutes s yeah that's good so yeah I mean all the other towns around us for the most part are in the program and so we always talk about Regional competitiveness they're getting money we're not and then you know mentioned it earlier um you know the town has left a lot of money on the table and you know there it's for so many different things that we can go after grants for we just focus on the economic development stuff but um this is going to be super competitive um what they've told us is they only accepting five applications this year my hunch is that one at least one is going to come from South Jersey um and then I think there's another town that's probably a favorite based on some history so I think realistically we probably have a chance at three open spots so um it's a big deal to get this it's going to be really hard considering I was on a call with 40 other towns and it's realistically only three spots so and when was it and the last time it was open was 21 21 21 21 which we missed because we yeah do you need anything else from us in support of this application um I mean volunteers to we'll request some letters of support but um at this point I think the main issue is just getting the document together and having you guys look at it so that does sound like a competitive process we want to give it our very best shot yes so we're doing our best um thank you for the additional info um Morris Turnpike just quickly I mentioned that we have two grants that are out there right now um I would like to do a hardscaping project if you drive down moris termik I know this is Tracy's passion um is I drive by it on my way to work twice a week it is awful um there's a lot of broken asphalt there's mud there's all this kind of stuff um in the what we found out is called The Verge um it's the space between the curve and the sidewalk um and so what we'd like to do is a hardscaping project where where we remove some of that broken asphalt Etc put down Stone ideally we'd like to do um recycled aggregate so we're not we're not you know we're being environmentally friendly um so I I have a couple of calls into some vendors they're giving me price quotes on it and then once we have an idea of kind of where this is ballpark wise um we'll put out a formal RFP um so at this point I'm just in a holding pattern waiting for some pricing um but I'll come back to you as as those numbers come in where would that come whose budget would that come out that would um well we have an allocation that we built into the budget this year from the street scaping um but if we can secure grant money obviously we would use the grand money for that so we have two applications in right now for a total of like 18,000 um so we'll see where that goes and when you say Morris Turnpike are you talking from the entirety of the Morris Turnpike District so from um from Walgreens at at Milburn a all the way up to the Benny H that's a that's a huge it's a huge stretch but actually a lot of it is um fairly wellmaintained grass um so really we're talking about a pretty small uh area it's just it's very hard to work in that area because of the traffic and um we're going to need some jackhammers to you know crack out asphalt and things we did in 2021 do a small streetscaping project yes um which cleaned up some things but it's time for a refresh so more to come with the new um Swim School gym going in maybe they want to sponsor something very well may I will happily make a call to them and ask them if they like right for the you know right both the neighborhood give us some um but yeah it needs a facelift um and so with that I wanted to have an open conversation with you guys about another um kind of emerging issue um and Stephen pointed out that he has some experience with this which is um AI artificial intelligence so there's a lot of discussion in the economic development World about the future of AI um and how how it impacts um business communities and so I actually have a meeting next Thursday with a company called Placer AI um they are making the rounds throughout New Jersey trying to sell their AI products to SIDS um it's a very costly project process and I don't we're not there but I want to have a meeting and understand the the technology behind it um if anybody in the board wants to join it's actually February 2 2 at 2 p.m. so that's 2:22 at 2 p.m. um so you can't forget that and I'll send a a zoom around if you guys are interested but I don't know a lot about AI technology um maybe Ben you know from his experience or Stephen um but I did some digging and I wanted to learn about you how retail businesses um utilizing Ai and a lot of it is customer manipulation essentially right um being able to do um predictive uh promotions you know if someone is buying certain things all the time how do you use push notifications or direct them to certain parts of your website um kind of R&D right so when you're thinking about what am I going to purchase for the next year well I can use AI to go through data and determine what people have bought what people didn't buy how long things have sat on the Shelf versus haven't um customer insights there's even interactive chats you know some businesses could use that um so that a person doesn't necessarily have to talk to a customer some may not like that so um then the other thing is some communities in New Jersey some SIDS are using this technology to track Shopper data um so it's basically using uh cell phone data to determine where people are coming from how long they're spending in the town what stores they're going to you can even have heat maps of where they walk um and so I I think that's Way Beyond what Milburn needs but I just you know the technology exists and I think it's we got to have that conversation because this are those towns in China that are they're doing that no they're in they're in think about any privacy question know it's all it's all privacy I mean literally if your phone I mean it's not how the data is used it's called Facebook and now with your phone they know where you're going how much money you're spending they know more about you than you know about you they tell you when you it's it's crazy so I'm just curious if anybody has any particular opinions about this before I go into this call um but I'll certainly report back and if anybody wants to participate but I will tell you this we're we're not doing AI we're not going into that I just we are at the one yard line trying to go the other way um and so just trying to collect information on what this science is because a lot of retail communities are investigating it as well I think we got to keep up I I don't have knowledge and I myself am interested in gaining knowledge I think so I'm really glad that we're proactively looking into this I think I'm most interested in understanding how can businesses harness this like how can this benefit businesses I mean I know for example um the younger generation I mean like my daughter and her job I mean it's changing the way people are looking for jobs and they actually have at her agency she works at they have like a custom chat GPT and it's being used a lot for right and she works at like a you know a high caliber um Healthcare Communications agency but it's being used a lot for crafting Communications and other things so to me it's how can we get ahead of it to help our businesses you and I spoke a little offline I shared a story um from when we had the premier creative SEO session one of the ways uh that and we've actually had multiple Consultants say this one of the ways to get your SE search engine results up is to have um AI generated cont content um on blogs or hidden web pages and um so Google sees that and increases part of the problem is that AI cannot create information itself it has to take it from something right and so what they found is businesses are plagiarizing other people's content or they're putting up content that they never read and so they don't check it for accuracy or whatever it could be so you're allowing this kind of third party intelligence to dictate what your company is putting out and so um he gave a very Stark warning about you know just that's important too though one of the warnings right don't get on you know watch out for these landmines yeah so I I think Stephen you have so I had up yeah I head up our emerging technology legal team at JP Morgan so I have a lawyer who is leading the charge we have over 1,000 use cases for potential generative AI tools there's a lot there's a big difference we've been using machine learning algorithms for decades what's new and why it's in the Press is the generative aips the output so if you enter a prompt you ask it a question and it will spit out new content the one of the biggest legal issues unresolved is IP risks both the training of the original model and the output and there's pending blck you know cases across the country right now so it's unresolved um as to those risks but um it's all about the data the data is the fuel that runs Ai and it's garbage in garbage out concept so you have to be very careful and of course privacy and there's all these other issues but it's good that we should get up to speed on it and see how our but like I don't think you know like for our store right it we don't have enough data to like analyze our customers yeah but you do because I mean l there's a software we saw that somebody walks in with the phone they can tell you the percentage likelihood of them buying something in your store and it's all on Facebook and Instagram right or what that product is right um from what I've been reading you know if you you're set up in a situation where someone comes in your store and they love carrot cake you can get that notification that's toward the well based on what though so you walk in the store it recognizes the NFC chip in their phone it hits their social media it goes through it understands and you have a profile within a quarter a second in your store in your store real time they walk into your Jewel I walk into your jewelry store it hits me this I've bought three Rolexes in in a in the last five years at an authorized dealer and boom you know what you got done I would never buy roox totally the power is incredible I mean then you have the risks of racism and bias in connection with those recommendations because you really don't know what it's based on it isn't tied to me it's tied to people who own Samsungs or apples and it gets into very deep and it's like oh that person could be a certain community member and they tend to like carrot cake or whatever and it become that that's where you really there's this huge gray area and and the presumptions that are made and but we should learn more about it and see how as a community a town uh we might want to um leverage it somehow or but also how we can be a re I mean to me this just seems like the exact type of role that Explorer should play is new technology in helping our 500 Business businesses embrace it understand I mean it could be educate right so this placei company I mean they've literally been calling every Sid director in the state saying can we have a meeting and I knew they selling their they're selling their platform um and you know it's it's like a CRM right you can go into it you can analyze all this data um I happen to know about the firm just through some of the the conferences I've attended and things and like I said I'm I don't think it's for us but I think it's important that you know if everybody else the other hundred Sid directors are getting the calls we need to be in on it to know what are we facing what is to you know you have to be and you got to stay current like a doctor or a lawyer right it's may we can invite them at some point in the future to address you know to to come here and talk to us or pitch us on you know what what they're doing well definitely send the zoom link to to all the board members so if you want to jump on that call next week yeah yeah and uh thank you that is all for me okay we are now at the point in our meeting for public comment when invited to speak please come to the Le turn state your name and speak into the microphone so your comments can be understood and properly recorded when reading a prepared statement please send a copy to Tracy at explore Milbourne Short Hills .org speakers must limit their comments to three minutes i' would like to remind everybody that this is a business meeting and we would expect professional decorum accordingly those on Zoom or phone will also have the opportunity to speak I think I'd like to start with our Zoom um calls first this evening please we have no attendees online okay no attendees online then let's go to the room um Mr Feld um Jeffrey Feld from Short Hills um I like the word inference that was used about an hour and more than an hour and a half ago um about the main street closures I really appreciate the discussion because it showed that I was right on my illegal analysis about the main closure requiring to be done by ordinance and having a traffic study as to your Main Street New Jersey application you not use the word hipster or turning into an urban municipality that was one of the things that drove the citizens crazy this three and a half years and that was not Mr gillo was his predecessor who wrote that application however when Mr gorillo made a presentation last Tuesday in front of the township committee he talked about the boundaries of the Main Street and that was on not mentioned to this body because there's four elements that we talk about in The Main Street New Jersey program one of them is organization focus on that box focus on that box that's where the issue about controlled entity comes into play it can't be a controlled entity of a governmental agency you can't have an appointed board the people are paying for the Sid have to vote for it that's been an issue I've been floating around but what do I know I used to work in a hardware store in Orange you talked about Jeff Yer contact him and ask him about my relationship with Jeff buer and how many times he's sat in my office and when we talk about the Main Street program there's two possible designations one is to have the top a grade the other one is like a partnership to learn the program but I'm saying do not discount what I'm saying look at the problem have any of you you attended a Main Street New Jersey public forum to understand all the elements there are elements that are involved and it's very important that the public gets an opportunity to look at the application and that's really it thank you I'm glad that you're feeling much better thank you I appreciate thanks Richie cyber president um this question is for you Amanda you mentioned earlier the question are directed to me that's okay she's going to answer the question though you you mentioned earlier that you send out a blast 2600 something like that you said right you have a well that our subscription base is 2600 and how often does that blast go out it it depends on uh the content that we have um whether we have events coming up sorry Mr cyber do you have the answer you must address the chair okay how many times does it go out I would suspect that it goes out when there's an event or or pertinent information that how do you get on the list how do you get on the list sign up your email we'll take it right now get on the list yes do you want me to answer we can answer at the the conclusion of his comments he still has a minute 30 do you have anything else you want to add before we answer I was only going to proceed from that question you can sign up via our website there's a you can do that if you just give us a re yeah so the correspondence takes place through email correct that's yeah that's what an eblast does so if people have um if people have signed up and then they've decided to unsubscribe we use MailChimp MailChimp tracks that we cannot send them any more email so it's it's very specific on people's rights um but we have people send us emails we have our form when we have events and other programs we give people the opportunity to provide us with that information and then we um keep them up to date on what we're doing but I'm just trying to help you my thing is a suggestions for it so in business one of a very popular thing is to get a $100 worth of goods for $80 people get excited about those kinds of things also years ago I don't remember how many years ago there was a coupon book that was sent out through P that you could buy for $5 or $20 and within it was like $1,000 worth of goods and I always bought it I don't know how many other people in here in the room here I always bought it it was like gold went through it and it was a good thing so I I just asked it for you to improve so like if you have 2600 people that's how where I would sell it that particular thing did you ever buy it anybody here that was long time I know but do you remember it was good man but yes that that would be an outside organization that would get the the the uh the stores participants to offer their services and if you you know if you spend that's value P you know I just throw that away when it comes to the mail no no you're talking about the coupon book I I know exactly what it was a nice book and you flipped through it what we do for the first for wrestling and the football programs is we fenes and lrra give us the $25 coupon that's they give them to us for 12 for 13 bucks and we sell them for 25 and we keep the difference yes anyway that's all I wanted to say and if you want to join the mailing list yeah I'll go I'll go but only if you give $100 for oh no but maybe you want to maybe you want to sign up at one of the special events on founding day and therefore you can be entered into the raffle that we're going to be giving I think you should volunteer to help do that program whatever a I just know that that was bold but but it's not but no one uses it anymore because people have have kind of migrated to the web for I I you know you and I you're oldfashioned I get it or just old um the good evening hi Vicky pal business owner um couple things one I just want to remind you sidewalk sale if we have to put it in front of the township committee yes we do okay annual reminder yes uh two uh in regards to the Metropolitan and any of these other businesses um uh apartment complex that are opening are we going to have our own explor QR code in those um lobbies so the people that are not the 50 that are not participating they have the District all the districts and what they offer I think that's a good thing so they like their a QR code to the website so they see what the other districts have to offer not just the 50 people that are doing the postcards okay comment on okay I just just just a thought you could be doing it I'm not sure um in regards to getting the message out about Restaurant Week Etc a month ago I mentioned um it would be nice in the township messages if we ramp that home shop local shop businesses that was a month ago there's been three messages not one of those messages had anything in it saying let's remember to go to shop small let's remember to go support the businesses listen Milbourne we've been here for 39 years Milbourne Short Hills it's a tough sell they don't always support the businesses because it's easier to go to Summit or it's easier to go to Maplewood so if we're gonna if we want to have them to support us we need to get the message out I don't understand why and I've been saying this for years why the township uh um officer when she does her Facebook post and everything why don't we have a Milbourne hey it's shop small weekend why don't we come in shop small Milbourne does not do that I don't understand why it does that but you can go to Summit you can see Summit on their Facebook page saying shop small for Summit this weekend I don't understand why Milbourne doesn't do it but if we don't lead by example and get the message out then we're not we're not telling them to come and support us so why aren't we getting that message out I've had the discussion with Steve before Milbourne does not Milbourne shorts do they don't know what businesses are in our town I mean I hear it when they come in for the trick-or-treating oh it's the first time I've ever been into the store well how long have you lived here I still have people that say they've never been to my business and we've been here 39 years so you got to get the message out whether it's a postcard sending it to all the businesses all the residents in milour sh Hills with a QR code to explore saying hey do you know what's in your town simple it's and it and it's everyone can get it and they can do the QR code something needs to be done to get the message out and it has to be led by example by our own Township Committee in our to in our town to get the message out for the businesses thank you can I yes please Amanda if you'd like to respond I'm not sure if I said earlier but we are providing a h small printed directory of all the s businesses that's going into the Metropolitan welcome back we'll do the same thing if uh given the opportunity Hearth Milburn um the other thing I will say um is I tag the township I want to say in 95% of the posts I do um once um the uh young woman comes back um I think it'll be a good opportunity to sit down and talk about you know whether I'm choosing them as a collaborator at every post you know what are they doing so I think that can grow more Tim I don't know if you have any comments on that but there's opportunity there for sure it's just juggling everything at this point and uh the postcard concept that is definitely on the priority list for this year um I love the idea we need to get print material into people's hands so that's a suggestion you made and we will absolutely do it this year I have go ahead I and then I have one other thought I think you're absolutely right and you know from the township committee's perspective um you know it's kind of a you I mean how about tach me last time I'm just trying to collect these thoughts so I say it correctly I really hit home the restaurant week and I think we should hit home shop locally uh but also too there's a reason that Township committee instituted the Sid that's who put the resolution in place for the Sid was the township committee correct so that's what this D is about right here so we have to make sure that we're doing 10 everything we can to press forward so when you sit at the at the uh at the at the uh microphone there and you say it you know that statement's really pushing this day is here of the Sid to fight harder to push because the township committee has funded the Sid to press that forward so when this business owners speaking she's speaking to us so we need to internalize that as the township committee liaison you know I need to make sure that I'm talking to Mr gillo who's leading this charge she's talking to you you understand that correct yeah absolutely okay good um and you know we talked about it multiple times tonight I think there needs to be better integration between the Sid the township and then other community organizations and it's a three-prong issue and uh it's a it's a real issue and it's an issue that I'm happy to lead the charge on you know if it takes me trying to light the fire under the township to do a better job of their communication right you know our our content is out there we we produce more content by far than anybody else it's a matter of is is it being repeated by the right people the answer is no from the information officer discussion we had earlier tonight you know I don't want that to fall through the cracks behind the curtain Alex is the one who really does the township committee weekly messages so maybe a nudge to say hey at the end shop local you know something along those lines wait hold and to your point I mean I had this discussion with the past mayor Maggie miggins and I brought that to her attention maybe seven you know seven months ago whatever she took the charge and she said to Alex hey when we do the message can we make this message so yes it falls on Alex's point but I'm just saying it needs to be Collective it needs to be you you whatever but I'm just saying you can speak down I SP it up to you a month ago I SP it up to you a month ago and I said can you add so you I I bought it to you maybe when you without without the prodding with all due respect you heard me tonight there's a lot of Township committees I'm sitting on and I'm trying to get a collective message across right yeah earlier today so that needs to permeate the different different committees and that message needs to go not just for your business for all businesses and that will lift the rising tide lifts all boat businesses yeah I can my my neighbors say the same thing I do you know I had one other thought I wonder whe that if we're going to be letting our Merchants you know put in these coupons or you know these post cars I wonder whether they whether we should have this QR code with you know with shop local you know with our you know where this goes back to our website where where somebody that you know scans this can see that all all the businesses in now yeah one thing that we talked about is um the directory is fine but the directory is not dynamic or interesting our Instagram page is great um and so what I'd like to do is and we're not quite there yet we we will be though um is producing more QR codes that link back to our Instagram page it's certainly more interesting and that's also where we reproduce literally thousands of pieces of of uh data Merchant promos every year um and so you know it's one thing to see that there's a boutique in town on a directory it's another thing to see their product and their video so um yeah I think we could do it on those cards we could we we're going to do a better job of that this year I'm just saying like what from what Ben said you know we're going to have these developments we're going to have leasing offices we're going to have our Merchants supplying stuff I'm just wondering whether we should you know we should try to standardize that our website that our you know the Instagram or whatever is on the information just so it's just not a oneoff well I can I mean I can request that we can put the postcard that we have designed in the fall or another version of that um out there it's really up to what they will allow us to do yeah I mean it's like a it's almost like a policy question for this board or for the township you know that we we have standards and that if we're going to let people advertise you know that they should open up to maybe all of the stuff should open up to our Instagram and Shop local you to Vick's point you know we you know instead of just being you know here's a postcard you know maybe it should always have our information on it or Instagram as a I mean I think that's something we can look into but these businesses are paying for those cards on their own I these QR codes probably go to their websites and things I'm just saying you know there's a greater good you have explore document you said you have that so that can go in the back that's thing we just want to get as much as we can a good example is you know Tracy's point on the uh the postcards that we've been producing during event season yeah um we have not linked to our Instagram we should um and so last year we linked to website I think this year we should link to our Instagram um same thing with our public art um you know we can put little QR codes on the public art and it links back to the Instagram something that you may not know is I came from the backend change where a QR code leads so it could start out as a uh taking you to the website I can just go in change that send it to Instagram so um we we have a lot of control there um even once something's printed we could still work with it just want to make sure that we think I'm just you know just we just want to make sure we think through the detail of the of the marketing even if it's minute you know we're you know we have all these new people coming to town and we're set we're letting our Merchants the stuff just we want to make sure we get we get as much well yeah Rich I think you like you could maybe custom a standardized you know member of explor Milburn like every one of these if they have a postcard you know you put a tiny little thing that's consistent explore mil Milbourne short Hill's member or something I think this is a good a good good project too for The Advisory Board to look at as well because they probably have some good ideas they're actually business Proprietors in town you know this Township uh Sid has been sitting now for 45 days and we haven't changed the world yet but the advisory committee can make some look at it and and and out Pine on it as well right so so that's what they're there for so uh and I don't know Vicky are you on that Advisory Board you may okay so we have some Proctors so maybe we can have them look at it as well and them in some we're 45 days in let's figure out if they can make some some adjustments as well the other thing is now that we're collecting all this data shouldn't we be partnering with our own uh with our own residents in Milbourne Short Hills shouldn't they be getting the same welcome there used to be a Welcome Wagon like so with Realtors or you know we have I mean it's the still do that think Welcome Wagon wag newcomers newcomers and neighbors certainly we could we could partner with them and have them I have a meeting with them next week rles mosques churches those are where the people go that's your community it's was neighbors and newcomers it's now called neighbors right it has two um new the helm because that was something that Reena barar uh managed and she managed the rebranding of it so I'm meeting with them about all the different ways right we can work with them and you know this the Metropolitan is really a test case project of how this works y um because we have asked businesses to invest in this themselves and so it needs to prove to them and to us that that's something we could should continue to do or do with these newer communities um so we're you know we're chipping away at it we can't do it all you know in one day but we're we're making strides Amanda do you guys have the Instagram on the bottom of your website so instead of oh you do so all your in Instagram post go on the bottom of your website it it doesn't work as well as it should do sometimes that will solve your problem instead of sending them to Instagram send them to the website and you'll see Instagram on it because I have it on mysite the website is a a project in itself that I think we need to prioritize in next maybe you need a new one from the economic development we don't qualify we the storefront it it does by law we have to be in town hall change the ordinance I get a free website um well maybe you can speak to uh new friend here about that um okay is there anybody online now nope okay is there anybody else no there's nobody else in the room I'd like to move to that we adjourn this meeting May I have a motion to adjourn have a second thank you good night