Peoria Standard

City of Chillicothe Marketing & Tourism Commission met October 3. 

Here is the minutes as provided by the commission:

Members Present:   Amanda Oedewaldt, Kevin Yates, Amanda Beadles, Tiffany Moore, Joe Harper, Amanda Oedewaldt

Members Absent:    Dan Colwell, Paresh Patel, Shirley Loser, Michele Pollack, Patty Pierson, , Nathenia Zich, Nick Mc Million, Kaci Geier, Nancie Cassidy

Others Present:       Mayor Don White, Director Parker, Trianna Kientzle from PACVB

The meeting was called to order at 3:31 p.m.

Budget Review – Mayor White gave the budget report. He stated that the last payment for the Billboard contract had been made. All other line items are on track or will be once the next collection of the taxes is received.

PACVB Appointment

Kaci Geier is no longer employed by the PACVB. The ordinance states that we are to have someone from the PACVB on this committee. Therefore Trianna Kientzel will sit in for Kaci until the new appointments happen in May. In the mean time she will attend the meetings and serve in the same capacity as Kaci did. This particular seat is tied to the organization not the person. The Mayor also mentioned the fact that our Hotel /Motel representative has not been attending the meeting and that we may need to look into that or reach out to the other hotel.

Christmas Decorations

Director Parker stated that last year we purchased Christmas Banners to go on every other light pole and fresh garland for those that did not have the banner. In all roughly $225 was spent. The question is do we want to purchase fresh again or look into purchasing used and don’t’ put any at all? Joe Harper stated that he knew a company that would either refurbish the old Christmas decorations or purchase the old from customers with a new purchase from them. He will get more details and bring back on that company. Amanda Oedewaldt stated that she has acquired roughly 60 Christmas wreaths and asked for suggestions on how the City/Business community could use them. It was concluded that Director Parker would get the count of the number of businesses we have downtown and see how many will be left for others. Pearce and the park district expressed interest in getting a few as well. Also Director Parker is to check with IDOT about what we can and cannot do on 4th Street. She stated that there are a lot of the large wreaths in the garage that could be put up on 4th if allowed. Mayor White suggested we check with Shademakers too to possibly help with the cost of the garland or whatever needs to be purchased since we did not budget and money for this.

Fall or Holiday Open House

Tiffany Moore from the Chamber shared that she saw where another community had an open house where you get all the realtors to have all the houses for sale open that day for people who are looking to purchase can go in and see and then on that same day have at possibly Shore Acres a group of real estate bankers that can be available to answer questions for people and or fill out applications for homes. They are looking at doing this on a Sunday sometime before the end of the year. She is still working out the details.

Director Parker also stated that it may be nice to have and open house for the businesses either with that event or have it the night before the Christmas parade. It was suggested that we have it on the same day as the parade to keep people downtown. People that usually after the parade just leave the area. That would be one way to keep them engaged if all the stores had refreshments and were all open at the same time and promoted the event. She also mentioned checking with the owner of the former Family Dollar to see if maybe some of the vendors (like from downtown Thursday’s) could set up tables in there and create somewhat of a mini mall for that day. She will report back via email to the committee on what she finds out from the owner.

Old Business:

CGI Progress

The City should get a viewing of the first draft of the video for their review in the next 2 weeks or so.

PAVCB Opportunities

Trianna reported that she has been in contact with several companies that will have their commercials taped. Pearce was the only one who had completed their video. She said it was going well and she will be reaching out to more businesses.

Brian Fox Ellis Update

This event is still planned for Nov. 11th at Shore Acres

Billboard Update-Chamber

The Chamber will be taking on hosting the billboard. They already have all but 3 months (July August & September) filled with local businesses that want to advertise. It is another way they can help promote their Chamber memberships. Kevin also mentioned that if anyone has an event going on to share it with the Chamber so that they can put it in google maps. Google maps populate a number of calendars so that multiple entries won’t have to be made. On November 17th the Chamber will host a general meeting at IVC where they will have google training for those who attend.

Event Sub Committee Update

Mayor mentioned that a meeting will be scheduled with key people from the larger events around town but will be open to whoever is interested so that they can start to work on a plan to bring some events together. Kevin Yates mentioned a couple of events (runs that Pearce and Optimist Club) that are interested in at least taking about the possibility of joining forces. Amanda Oedewaldt stated that she had already checked into possible new carnival dates. The only date that was wide open was in September. The Mayor asked her to go ahead and reserve that date and from that we will work out the events around this new Chillicothe Corn Festival or whatever name it ends up with.

Summary:

Council Agenda Items - None

Chair – Actions - None

There being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 4:24 p.m.

http://www.cityofchillicotheil.com/M%20&%20T%20%20Minutes%2010%203%202018.pdf