Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce



Downtown Revitalization Committee Meeting - Thursday, September 7th 2017In attendance were Tracy Brookshier, Jim & Karen Arico, Sue Haley, John Gulick, & Ethan Colbert.Missouri Community Betterment Grant/Levitt Foundation matching grant for music festivals:I sent an email out on Aug. 17 sharing information I found regarding a potential grant opportunity to bring a music festival to the square. This is a matching grant of up to $25,000. Jim Arico and Carolyn Wisecarver agreed to look into it with potential to pursue it. Jim and I met with Judy Shearon on Aug 22 to gain her knowledge about the grant as she had been involved with it in the past. The conclusion being that although this is an amazing opportunity; the grant is extremely detailed and since the deadline for it is October 2nd, we agreed that it may be best to try and hold off until next year. We do not want to rush into such an in depth contest style grant without being fully prepared. It did raise the topic of hosting musical events on the square again, which brings us back to trying to find organizations willing to do so. Events on the square:In a prior email I had informed everyone that Monica Helkey had shown potential interest in organizing some events on the square. Monica recently found out that she may be moving out of town, so this is no longer a possibility. So we are still searching for event organizers. Window Painting Contest:At the last meeting we had conversation about a window painting contest (specifically the vacant business windows) and since then Karen Arico has been spear heading the idea. She spoke with the High school Art teacher to see about getting students involved painting the windows for homecoming. Community State Bank has already offered cash prizes for the winners. Although the faculty was excited about the idea, the concern was that they already have multiple homecoming activities on the books and would not have the time or supplies to do it this time. Karen is going to approach again and ask if they have a specific time of year that may potentially work better for them. Karen is also working on contacting the vacant building owners to ensure they will allow us to do such things. We discussed many other organizations that may be willing to paint art or hang art on the windows:4H week kidsJohn Gulick made contact with Patty and said they may not be ready to do it in the near future, but definitely did show interest. Local artistsSee if we can find local artists that would be willing to paint the windows/showcase their art. Ethan mentioned sidewalk chalk artists and “living window” artists and is making contact with some of them to see if they would be interested in our mission. Potentially see if the living window group would be willing to do this at the Holly Jolly Festival.BicentennialInclude the bicentennial contestHealthy Minds, Healthy Lives poster contestA Mental Health Awareness community group. They are hosting their 2nd annual poster contest, we could potentially display all the entries in the vacant windows. I spoke with Carrie Wells who heads this program and she said she is 99% sure they would love to do that, she would just have to potentially get teen and parent permission to do so, but doesn’t think that would be a problem. She was very enthusiastic about the idea. VFWJim Arico said the VFW may be interested in showcasing some things in the windows and will make contact with them. Signage directing travelers to downtown:We discussed a point Dyana Rode (owner of Design by Consign on the square) had made via email to me being that there is little to no signage directing people to the square for shopping off the highway. We had discussed this at one of our earlier meetings and one of the problems is most of the places we think would be good locations for signs would either be extremely expensive, or unable to because of state property. We discussed having some sort of signage attached to the City of Bowling Green’s welcome billboard, it is supposedly property of the Visitors Bureau. I will try to make contact with them to see if there is any potential possibility of that. Free cupcakes:Angi Korte made a batch of some delicious cupcakes for all of us to enjoy at no cost. If you see her in the community please take a moment to thank her! Next Meeting!Our next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, October 5th @ 5pm at the Bowling Green Library’s Community Room. ................
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