Lowell Center City Committee, Inc.
Stakeholder's Representatives Meeting
August 28, 2007

MEETING MINUTES

The meeting opened at 8:35 AM.

The Stakeholder groups were represented by the following members:
Artists, Steve Syverson;
Building Owners, Marshall Field;
Business/Chamber of Commerce, Jeanne Osborn;
Business/Community Banking, Matt Fitzpatrick;
Business/Resources, Russ Smith;
City of Lowell/DPD, Chris Samaras;
City of Lowell/Police Dept., Ken Lavallee;
Education/Middlesex CC, Molly Sheehy;
Education/UMass Lowell, Dr. Joseph Lipchitz;
General Population/NMCOG, Bob Flynn;
Non-Profit Corporations/CTI, Bill Lipchitz;
Residents/Lowell DNA, Ted Lavash;
Visitors/CVB, Debbie Belanger;
Visitors/Lowell Festival Foundation; Janet Leggat;
Visitors/Lowell National Park; Mehmed Ali.

Absent:
Business/JAMBRA, Tim Shanahan;
Business/Lowell Plan, Jim Cook;
Business/Restaurants, Franky Descoteaux;
Business/Retailers, George Vallaras;
Cultural Organizations, L.Z. Nunn;
Education/Lowell High School, Bill Samaras;
General Population/LRTA, Jim Scanlan;
Youth/UTEC, Greg Croteau.

Also present were:
Alternates Kathleen Marcin (Residents/DNA), Terry Williams (Business/ LSBAC), Bob Forrant (Education/UML), and Sara Kuhn (City of Lowell / Police Department);
Guest Celia Harkins-Moses (Edge Group) and the following members of the Lowell Police Department: Deputy Superintendents Arthur Ryan and Robert DeMoura and Lt. Tom Lombard.

On a motion by Joe Lipchitz, seconded by Janet Leggat, it was voted: to accept the minutes of June 26, 2007.

Treasurer’s Report

Matt Fitzpatrick reported the balance is $1,829.00 after paying out $945.00 for Annual Meeting expenses. $50 dues has been received from the recently elected member LSBAC for their dues.

Fund Development Committee

President Ali expects the calendar to be printed and ready for distribution in the next few weeks. All but one sponsor has responded.

Newcomers Night

The committee chaired by LZ Nunn met last week and resolved some issues: the date will be Thursday, October 4th with a rain date of the 11th; the location will be the Enterprise Bank Parking Lot; the theme will be the Harvest, with decorations including hay bales and corn stalks, possible hay rides, apples and pumpkins; a bluegrass band will perform and food will be provided by Angelina’s Pizza, the Brazillian Bread House, Etsogo (the new Japanese restaurant replacing the Mandarin Kitchen) and Tepthida Khmer. There will be a cash bar, and tables set aside for businesses and organizations.

Announcements

Chris Samaras reported that the Rbbin’ & Brews festival will be this weekend at the Tsongas Arena, the Art Walk competition is continuing, the new Mediterranean themed restaurant Centro is opening this week, and there will be a meet the businesses day at UMass Lowell on September 28th.

Jeanne Osborn announced the Chamber of Commerce will be holding its Expo on September 20th at the Auditorium, followed by a Business Award Dinner at which a Non-Profit Business of the Year (UTEC) and New Businesses of the Year (Hookslide Kelly’s) will be given awards as well as Dracut House of Pizza and Comcast. There will also be seminars on training and manufacturing, store window decoration and other topics.

Steve Syverson reminded folks that ALL will be sponsoring Open Studios on September 29th and 30th,.with over 100 artists at Western Avenue and more downtown. A shuttle bus will be available to get between the two locations.

Matt Fitzpatrick announced the Young Professionals of Greater Lowell will hold a comedy event at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium on Friday, September 28th. Tickets may be found at Group Sales at the Auditorium.

Lowell Police Chief Ken Lavallee introduced members of his new command staff: Deputy Superintendents Bob DeMoura and Arthur Ryan, and Lieutenant Tom Lombard who is commanding the East Sector during the absence of Captain Stavely who is recovering from an accident. He also announced that Jackie Ormonde has left the LPD to return to school and her position will be filled shortly.

Janet Leggat said the Kiwanis Club will be having its annual Monster Bash at the Tsongas Arena on October 30th.

Special Guest Dr. Robert Forrant

Although Bob Forrant is an alternate member from UMass Lowell, he was asked to make a special presentation about some of the work he has been doing with his students in the Graduate School of Social and Economic Development regarding how to attract more UMass students to come into and use downtown Lowell. He began with a disclaimer that these ideas are coming from him and his students and did not necessarily represent the official views of the University or its new Chancellor. There are about 5,000 resident students, 12,000 overall and about 400 faculty members at the University that should be a major market for downtown.

The first idea is to allow students to spend a portion of the meal plan dollars in downtown restaurants. The students get a debit card that is pre-loaded with meal money, and a program would have to be set up to work with specific businesses that would accept the cards. He suggested that the CCC and other members of the business community could be very helpful in getting the program started. This idea ties into the aforementioned business meet-and greet session that DPD is setting up at UML in September. The University has a contract with food vendor Aramark to provide food on campus and this would have to be worked out with them. Also, Aramark buys food from various sources, so why not from local restaurants?

The second idea is that even though the downtown is not that far from either the north or south campuses, students do not think of walking downtown for shopping or eating. COOL is working on ideas to make the walking routes more attractive that could include decoration, “trail marking” and signage showing how few minutes it takes to walk downtown.

The third idea is to get the RA’s in the dorms to become more familiar with attractions downtown and to get their help in promoting this information to the dorm residents. This could include training (the MCC/CVB Ambassador’s Program?), inviting the RA’s to various downtown places, and supplying them with brochures etc. Chris Smaras said some UML students are working on putting a booklet together about downtown, and Molly Sheehy suggested packets of info be assembled. It was agreed that RA’s, Students and new faculty members should be explicitly invited to Newcomer’s Night. Another idea is to use the student newspaper for advertising.

The fourth idea is to reach out to new faculty members through a letter. This would go through the Provost’s Office to identify new hires. Molly offered to help with printing costs.

The fifth idea is to have a “Lowell Film Festival” to be held downtown. A venue that could hold about 125 people and show films would be ideal.

The sixth idea is to publicize UML cultural events (seminars, talks, concerts, etc.) that are held on campus more to downtown residents and workers (it is a two-way street). This sparked a discussion about shuttle buses. Deb Belanger suggested a festive, well-decorated bus dedicated to UML and downtown would help. Others talked about the use (or not) of the Riverwalk at night…more lights are needed before people would feel safe at that time.

Action Items

Bob Forrant will send an email to Mehmed Ali outlining the meal plan idea in more detail.

On a motion by Bill Lipchitz, seconded by Molly Sheehy, it was voted: to have the President send a letter to Chancellor Meehan supporting the idea of students being able to use their meal money in downtown restaurants.

Joe Lipchitz will contact the Provost’s Office and the Head of Student Life to determine ways that faculty and students can be contacted and invited to Newcomer’s Night.

Deb Belanger asked if an email list of students and faculty could be acquired to allow the DPD newsletter to be distributed to them.

The next Stakeholder’s Meeting will be Tuesday, September 25, 2007.

On a motion by Marshall Field, seconded by Steve Syverson, it was voted: to adjourn the meeting at 9:35 AM.