Stakeholder's Representatives
Meeting
February 24, 2009
MEETING MINUTES
The meeting opened at 8:35 AM.
The Stakeholder groups were represented by
the following members:
Artists, Steve Syverson;
Building Owners, Larry Field;
Business/Community Banking, Jamie O’Hearn;
Business/Resources, Russ Smith;
City of Lowell/DPD, Christopher Samaras;
City of Lowell/Police Dept., Arthur Ryan;
City of Lowell/Police Dept., Janet Lopez
Education/Middlesex CC, Molly Sheehy;
Non-Profit Corporations/CTI, Bill Lipchitz;
Residents/Lowell DNA, Ted Lavash;
Visitors/Lowell Festival Foundation; Janet Leggat;
Guests:
Jason Gibbs
R C Lations
Brett Fermeglia
Absent:
Business/Chamber of Commerce, Jeanne Osborn;
Business/JAMBRA, Tim Shanahan;
Business/Lowell Plan, Jim Cook;
Business/Restaurants, Franky Descoteaux;
Business/Retailers, George Vallaras;
City of Lowell/DPD, Theresa Park;
Cultural Organizations, L.Z. Nunn;
Cultural Organization of Lowell, Susan Cromwell
Education/Lowell High School, Roxanne Howe;
Education/UMass Lowell, Dr. Joseph Lipchitz;
General Population/LRTA, Jim Scanlan;
General Population/NMCOG, Beverly Woods;
Visitors/Lowell National Park; Peter Aucella;
Visitors/CVB, Fred Hunter;
Youth/UTEC, Greg Croteau;
Minutes of Previous Meeting
On a motion by Janet Leggat, seconded by Molly Sheehy,
it was voted: to accept the minutes of January 27, 2009.
Treasurer’s Report
Treasurer Jamie O’Hearn reported that the CCC
has a balance of $1,430.88 in its account and that about a third of the dues
money has come in. The annual meeting is scheduled for March
31st. Bill reminded members they must have paid their dues in order to
vote at the meeting. In response to a request from the City Manager to help
support the beautification of downtown through the purchase and care of the
hanging flower baskets, it was agreed to be a sponsor. ON a motion by Molly
Sheehy, seconded by Steve Syverson, it was voted:
to donate $250.00 to the City of Lowell
to support the Hanging Flower Basket Program.
Downtown Lowell Blog
The minutes of the February 10, 2009 informal meeting were distributed
because the main topic of that meeting was a discussion with Lynne Lupien of
the Left in Lowell Blog regarding how our blog might be improved. The goals
of the Downtown Lowell Blog include:
have the blog a center for all things downtown including information sharing
and a forum for discussion of issues relating to downtown; have the site
become economically viable, and add more graphics. In order to do this, we
would need to find someone to coordinate/edit the site, recruit bloggers and
identify outside blogs that could be syndicated to ours. Lynne suggested that
the CCC blog change to a forum format with threads for different
conversations and that the minutes of the CCC meetings could be summarized on
the blog and would be linked to the actual minutes on the CCC website. She
also suggested approaching the English Department at Middlesex Community
College to see if a professor could be the
point person in recruiting a student who might be interested in editing the
blog. Lynne stated that the CCC needs more visibility in the City.
It was agreed that posting the minutes of the meetings or a summary of
them might help to stimulate discussion as would the inclusion of “syndicated
blogs” from other posters in the community.
Some other ideas were to organize information on the blog by themes
such as music events, Theater events, Art events, shopping, food etc. and
have links to the blogs that post that
information so that , rather than try to maintain a universal calendar of
events, people could find links to everything current.
Getting Students Downtown
Three graduate students from the UMass Lowell
program in Music and Business joined the meeting. Jason Gibbs, Brett
Fermeglia and RC Lations have been involved in matching up events with
locally produced music as one way to draw students into the downtown. For
example, they produced a compilation CD of local music talent and had a CD
Release party at the Revolving Museum last November with money raised going to Lowell High School students for scholarships
to the UMass Lowell music program. They are also working to pair music with
art openings and would like to see a steady flow of these and other events
featuring music that appeals to the student population. They would like to
see another venue like the now closed Evos on Middle Street. They are currently
working with the Counterpart Gallery on the second floor of 124 Merrimack Street.
One suggestion for an evos-like space
was the former Ivy Hall on Merrimack
Street.
In response to questions about why there are
not that many students coming to the downtown from the University, they
suggested that there is no push on campus to get them out of the dorms; that
freshmen in particular have no place to go downtown, and that there is a
perception that walking downtown at night may not be as safe as they would
like. Art Ryan mentioned that places
that have under-21 events that are attracting over-21’s who then want to
drink may have some problems. Jason said that a recent event at the Blue
Shamrock dealt with that problem and were very effective in monitoring who
could drink and who could not.
Jason, Brett and RC all felt that the blog
could be a useful tool in centralizing downtown information and RC
volunteered to help with it.
Annual Meeting Tuesday, March 31, 2009
The President appointed a nominating committee
for the purpose of bringing forth a slate of officers for next month’s
meeting. The committee consists of Janet Leggat, Jamie O’Hearn and Chris
Samaras. Current officers are Bill Lipchitz, President, Molly Sheehy, Vice-President,
Marshall Field, Clerk, Terry Williams, Secretary, and Jamie O’Hearn,
Treasurer.
A discussion of awards to be presented ensued.
The tradition is to single out someone or some group or some class of people
who have a positive contribution to the downtown. This year, the consensus is
to honor people who have provided examples of the creative economy idea in
the downtown. People like the developer of the Western Avenue Studios, the
promoters of film or music series or art galleries were suggested. The
Committee would like to solicit nominations from the downtown stakeholders
and members are encouraged to submit nominations with a brief justification
to blipchitz@comteam.org.
Reports from Representatives
Chris Samaras announced that the City Manager’s
St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast will be held on
Friday, March 13, 2009 at the Doubletree Hotel. Please contact him for
tickets at csamaras@lowellma.gov.
Ted Lavash reported that the Lowell Downtown
Neighborhood Association re-elected their current officers including Kathleen
Marcin as President.
Art Ryan said there has been some
reorganization in the Lowell Police Department that has resulted in an
increase in the walking beats in downtown.
Next Meeting
The next Stakeholder’s Representatives Meeting will
be the ANNUAL MEETING and it will be held March 24, 2009 in the Assembly Room
of the MCC Morse Federal
Building. The meeting
will start at 8:00 AM with a light breakfast.
Members are reminded to get their dues in ASAP.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:45 AM.
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The Next Informal
Meeting of the Center City
Committee
Will be
Tuesday March 3, 2009
8:30 AM
Olive That & More
167 Market Street
The Next Meeting of the Stakeholder Representatives
Will be the ANNUAL MEETING
Tuesday March 24, 2009
The MCC
Morse
Federal
Building
East Merrimack Street
8:00 AM.
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