Present:



|Present: | |

|Dave & Denise Olsen |Randy &Miki Rindt |

|Nikki Brown |Paul Kauzlarich |

|Duane Lyons |Larry Konen |

|Ted Kennett |Diane Still |

|Mark Totty |Pastor Barbara & Virgil Blanchard |

|John M. Silvers |Dick & Jean Sisson |

|Ted Cowan |Eric Wolfe |

|Willy Barsten |Tanya Luke |

|Tashae’ Jones |Kelsie Taylor |

|Ellye Main |Marion Main |

|Jediah Main |Mikel Davis |

|Kathy Taylor |Kathy Farnsworth |

|D. Chase Foster |Dan Groves |

|Al Farnsworth |Robbin Gregory |

|Eva Valdivia |Tressa Stadel |

|Shelby Mears |Donna Kime |

|Dan Cypher |Chuck Harris |

|Peggy Harris |Elliot Baker |

|Donda Lambert |Jerry Steinert |

|Rick Carney |Rhonda Schab |

|Jeff Ranger |John McGowan |

|Randy Juette | |

|Social Event |The evening started with a hour-long social time to visit with fellow attendees and get to|

| |know one another. Great food and appetizers was provided by American West Bank. Mr. Dan |

| |Groves acted as Facilitator and came up with the great idea of having everyone get up and |

| |introduce themselves to as many new people as they could in five minutes. This really got|

| |the social buzz going. |

| | |

|Call to Order |The meeting was called to order at 6:30 PM by Mr. John McGowan. Mr. McGowan welcomed the |

|Introductions |Business Leaders and Community Members who had arrived. Mr. McGowan is in hopes that this|

|Roll Call |meeting will draw partnerships & communication between us all here tonight. Mr. McGowan |

| |also announced that he wanted everyone in attendance to please sign in on the sheet that |

| |was being passed around. |

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|Small Town Opportunities-Mr. Dan Kelleher |Mr. Kelleher thanked the People of Naches, the Naches School District, Town Council and |

|Executive Director of Committee for Downtown|the Community Members for coming to tonight’s meeting. Mr. Kelleher lives up on the Nile |

|Yakima |and has just moved to the area a couple of months ago. He has been fortunate enough to |

| |stop several times in our community and conduct business on his way to or from work. |

| | |

| |Mr. Kelleher then proceeded to show a picture of a man who had a congressional metal of |

| |honor and wanted to know if any of us had a clue as to who he was or why he was famous. |

| |It ended up being Admiral James Stockton, the running mate of Ross Pero in 1993. He had |

| |his 15 minutes of fame when he said in the middle of a debate “Who am I and why am I |

| |here?” That is probably what we are thinking, why would the organizers of the Community |

| |Unity Social ask Mr. Kelleher here tonight? Mr. Kelleher is currently the Director of the|

| |Committee to Improve Downtown Yakima. Mr. Kelleher has worked in various communities |

| |including, Kent, Richland, Hampton Virginia, Louisville Kentucky and now Yakima. Mr. |

| |Kelleher brings cooperation and collaboration amongst community members and business’s so |

| |that they may improve their communities. |

| | |

| |Mr. Kelleher informed the audience that he would give them examples of what other |

| |communities have done and hopefully that will get the creativeness flowing in our group of|

| |people and inspire good things. About a year ago the Yakima Business Improvement |

| |District was formed and their goal was to promote and attract visitors and tenants to the |

| |downtown core. The business owners wanted a clean and safe area. Out of this came the |

| |purple shirt ambassadors, these ambassadors are responsible for many different things, |

| |such as: |

| | |

| |Sweeping/Litter Collection |

| |Landscape/Planting |

| |Security Services |

| |Hospitality Services |

| |Human Services |

| | |

| |The Yakima Business Improvement District also tries to work with the local business’s and |

| |ask that they distribute to the theme and place out their own floral displays. Since this|

| |has taken off, a new Downtown is blooming program has derived from it all. The local |

| |downtown businesses compete for the best outdoor display and the winner walks away with |

| |the Orchid Award. This year Santiago’s was awarded the best landscaping presentation. |

| |The Improvement District has really noticed that awards really do motivate people to get |

| |involved. The first year of the program, there aren’t too many participants because the |

| |word is just getting out, but the second year people really buckle down and start |

| |competing. |

| | |

| |As for the Purple Shirt Ambassadors, they all carry radios and can call police for |

| |assistance or to report a crime. These ambassadors help with low level problems, such as |

| |pan handling, public intoxication, open containers, homelessness, and some human services,|

| |such as getting people the help they need and sometimes they even deliver these |

| |individuals to the appropriate places that offer the help. |

| | |

| |Since the Improvement District has started they have been improving on their marketing and|

| |promotions. The downtown business’s have what they call 1st Friday’s. During the 1st |

| |Friday of every month many of the businesses participate in providing more entertainment |

| |and more food specials for that one night. It has become very successful since its |

| |beginning. |

| | |

| |Another promotional tactic is what they call Corkage Free Zone. What this program does is|

| |not charge penalties for bringing in your own bottle of wine. The catch is that it has to|

| |be purchased from one of the downtown wineries that night with your receipt shown at the |

| |restaurant. This has been one of their most popular promotional programs and has earned |

| |lots of recognition. There are many restaurants and wineries that are choosing to |

| |participate. |

| | |

| |The group stays connected by having a monthly roundtable breakfast. At those meetings |

| |they are updated on marketing strategies and what beautification projects are going on. |

| |At the next monthly meeting they will be updated on the downtown parking, as there have |

| |been new meters that have been installed downtown. |

| | |

| |All of these programs are voluntary and participants are encouraged to keep up their |

| |beautification projects. There are voluntary clean up days. The street ambassadors can |

| |be quite expensive, but are well worth the money. You can also cut costs, buy sharing the|

| |expense or paying for part time ambassadors. Promotional events can be done on the cheap,|

| |such as decorated store fronts for the holidays. Sidewalk chalk decorations can also be |

| |incorporated. You want to make sure that the events showcase the distinctive quality of |

| |the town. |

| | |

| |The types of events that would be distinctive for our town would be hunting, fishing, |

| |skiing, sportsman days and fruit oriented events. The Town could even sponsor health & |

| |safety fairs, bicycle safety checks, blood rives, child finger printing, face painting and|

| |maybe even meeting McGruff the crime dog or other characters. Success requires commitment|

| |and the ability to work together. Differences need to be set aside. It is ok to agree to|

| |disagree, but projects need to be followed through and you will be happy that you have |

| |done what you have. With all of these tools you will have a cleaner, prosperous town that|

| |is fun to live in. |

| | |

| |With no further discussion Mr. Kelleher concluded his portion of the meeting at 7:05 PM. |

| | |

|Audience participation |Mr. Dan Groves spoke to the audience and informed them that the Community Unity goal was |

| |to form an association that would build connections between the business and citizens of |

| |the community. |

| | |

| |Mr. Groves then invited the people sitting at the different tables to sit together and |

| |brain storm on the different events, and/or projects that we would like to see in our |

| |community and capture those ideas on paper. After this discussion we would talk about the|

| |next meeting and try and get a flavor for some of the kinds of things people were |

| |interested in doing in the community. Some of the ideas that were generated are listed as|

| |follows: |

| | |

| |Chalk art on the Street by the Gazebo |

| |A new Welcome to Naches Sign with business names |

| |A family fun night |

| |Main Street Improvements |

| |A light parade |

| |A day of caring |

| |High School Community Service |

| |Customer entrance and exit signs |

| |Tailgate party’s at the home games |

| |Upgrade for current local activities |

| |Stadium improvement project |

| |Skate park |

| |Seasonal Events such as Christmas Tree lighting |

| |Clean up day |

| |Flower planters |

| |Community activity listing for new visitors and new residents |

| |Taste of Naches |

| |Community clean up for youth |

| |Store Front Decorations |

| |Signage for Depot and Downtown area |

| |Bike friendly community (educate community) |

| |A Town theme |

| |Identify community value |

| |Trail improvement |

| |Award recognition system |

| |Recycling program |

| |Use of the bandstand |

| |Street dancing |

| |Kids bike parade |

| | |

| |Mr. Groves then discussed the few ideas that had been presented and agreed that there |

| |needed to be some kind of follow up meeting to act on some of these ideas. Mr. Groves |

| |also thought that it would be a good idea to conduct this type of meeting on a regular |

| |basis to encourage projects and forums. |

| | |

| |Pastor Bard from the Nazarene church addressed the audience and informed them that their |

| |church had been conducting a Christmas tree lighting for the past three years and that |

| |their event for this year would take place on December 5, 2009 |

| | |

| |Mr. John McGowan again addressed the audience. He was very happy to see the turn out at |

| |tonight’s meeting and pointed out the different representation from all of the different |

| |organizations in attendance. Mr. McGowan asked the room how this group should continue, |

| |and to think about what Naches could be if one-half of these ideas came to be. |

| | |

| |Mr. McGowan will have Naches Valley Chamber President, Mr. Randy Juette post the next |

| |meeting up on the Chamber website so that we are all aware. It will be tentatively set |

| |for early to mid-January. Mr. McGowan also wanted to send out copies of the minutes via |

| |e-mail because it is just too costly for postage. |

| | |

| |Chamber President, Randy Juette invited everyone to the Chamber meeting held the 3rd |

| |Wednesday of the month at the Depot at 6:00 PM. |

| | |

| |Mr. Groves asked the members in attendance before they left if they would mind placing a |

| |few answers to some questions on a piece of paper and leaving them at the ends of the |

| |tables. The questions were: |

| | |

| |1. What would you keep in the meeting? |

| |2. What was not ok or what would you do differently? |

| |3. What did you learn? |

| |4. How would you like to participate? |

| | |

| | |

| | |

|Continue Meeting/Adjournment (7:33 PM) |With no further discussion to come before the organizers and participants, the meeting was|

| |adjourned. |

Respectfully Submitted,

_________________________________

Tanya J. Luke

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