Chairman Chas Stevens called the meeting to order at 6:00 pm on February 10, 2025.
Kevin Sluka conducted roll call and the following Board Members were present:
Present: Natalia Kleyman, RanD Pitts, Kevin Sluka, Chas Stevens, Andrianna Popowych, Rick St. Pierre, Tania Althoff, Chris Edwards (zoom), Conlyn Chan
Missing: Beth Akkaway
CHAIRMAN REMARKS
January was slow, however, we’re hoping for a busy spring so the planning to make that happen is underway.
APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES
Chas made a motion to approve the meeting minutes from January which were approved.
COMMITTEE REPORTS
- Infrastructure & Art (Kevin)
PSE&G took a break for a week due to the winter weather forecast. Hoping they can still be done on time. The DSA has been working to update the community on parking options while this is ongoing. Still on the timeline of being done by St Patricks Day. Olivia and Chas to meet with ABS to discuss issues and infrastructure. Working with the design committee to improve the trash cans in the downtown. Ongoing efforts with RWJ to re-do their mural.
- Promotions
KPI report shows interactions down since December, however, we had call to action posts during December which required more interaction than usual. Gained followers and measurable traction from ads. We hired instagram followers for various Valentine’s promotions, this proved to be successful via watch times, followers gained, and gearing the public to our social media.
We sold out for the Galentine’s Chocolate Walk scheduled for February 13th. Included in the promotion were businesses participating with free samples, or businesses participating with special deals or sales for the night. Social media helped to support this initiative with valentines date ideas, gifts ideas, and more.
Our commitment to the St Patrick’s day sponsorship is a three year commitment.This includes the organization being able to walk in the parade or opt for a float. The sponsorship also includes dinner at the Knights of Columbus. The parade is on March 16th.
We have a marketing goal of increasing visitors return rate, and strengthening our brand recognition. We’d like to incentivise strategies to bring visitors back to the downtown. We also want to move forward with making our messages more consistent, so visitors can rely on the experience they’re going to have downtown. We’d like to use the events as a catalyst for visitor returns.
Proposing key promotional channels including traditional media (tap into, nj.com edible nj), out of home advertising (billboards, printed mailers, etc), experiential advertising (photo ops, art, etc), and digital channels (email, social media, google, influencers).
- Finance (Chas)
Budget was adopted last month.
- Economic Vitality
New business signage is up. A few new businesses are coming to town including a potential art gallery, Yoga 6, a barber shop, and others. We’re working to form an updated business list. We’ve been scheduling complimentary headshots for businesses and have had 14 responses so far, hoping the word gets out to other businesses so we can get around to everyone that wants professional photos. We’ve been getting a lot of requests for available real estate in town. Hoping to connect with a local commercial realtor so we can keep an updated list of availability on our website. Business mixer on March 19th, 6pm-8pm at Cafe Picasso.
DIRECTOR’S REPORT
March 7th the Main Street grant for $150,000 opens up and we plan on applying in hopes to put it towards Division Street and Giardina Walkway improvements. Main Street will be doing virtual board training for anyone that needs it, they will provide dates to choose from. Main Street conference is the first week of April in Philadelphia, if anyone wants to join. Olivia will be a speaker at this conference regarding transforming social media engagement through visual storytelling. There is a special volunteer rate. We’re connecting with RWJ regarding replacing their mural, we’re currently talking ideas and forming a plan. Olivia has been going to the tour of Somerville meetings, this is their 80th year so hoping to make it bigger and more memorable. We’re finalizing our sponsorship packet to send out to the public.
NEW ITEMS/UPDATE
The town is working on a federal grant to focus on sidewalk infrastructure.The borough and the DSA are going to partner to get information out about parking. Cameras for main street were put into the new budget for approval.
ADJOURNMENT
Meeting adjourned at 7:07pm, next meeting March 10th at 6pm