Next Meeting:
 8:00 AM Thursday, February 9th, 2012
 at Tommy Brann's, 4157 S. Division  [click for directions]

         

  March 11th, 2010
Meeting Minutes [click to download PDF]
1. Call To Order
Members Present: Tommy Brann, Brann’s Steakhouse and Grille; Jerry DeGood, Auto Finance Company; Al Reurink, Modern RV Center; Chief James Carmody, Wyoming Police Department; Steve Karrip, Metro Motors; Juliette Cowall, Godwin Plumbing, Jeff Augustyn, City of Kentwood Police Department; Tim Pomorski, Affordable Auto Service; James Leach Jr. Hobart Sales and Service; Aida Slogar, Lake Michigan Credit Union; Robert Duck, Elite Security/Alpha Players; Tim Cochran, City of Wyoming; Jim Kubicek, Bubble Magic Laundry; Tim Reeves, Kelloggsville Public Schools; Harold Mast, Harold Mast Consulting; Susie Hudson, Chase Bank; Dave vanhouten, Windows World; Judy Perrin and Ron Perrin, RSP Property Investment; Greg Mahalick, Callander Commercial

2. Approval of Minutes
A motion was made by Al Reurink with support to approve the February 11, 2020 meeting minutes.

3. Treasury Report
The current balance is the DABA account is $3,522.07. Total membership = 34 members. Tom said that we need to try to get that up to 50, but the balance is good, and that’s with the Weed Control bill paid.
A motion was approved to pay the $540 bill for the website maintenance to Mike Endres by Jim Leech Jr, and seconded by Aida Slogar. Ron Perrin offered to do the web maintenance/development for the website at half price. Approval motion was amended. Tom will accept a bid and we will reconsider at next meeting.

4. Roundtable
Jim Leech Jr. discussed what he found out when looking into other Business Associations. He met with president of the Gaslight Village Association, Chad Zagel (Financial advisor by trade) and found out that the city of east Grand Rapids is extremely involved in assisting the Association. Jim was very impressed how much they have improved the area in just 5 years. Here are some of the things they do:

 They are heavily involved in social media networking, including but not limited to Facebook and Twitter.

 They had quarterly meetings but now going to monthly because there is much more to do with the responses they get online.

 They developed a map of Businesses, all members, and have ads from each business or coupons along the edges. Only members have access to these maps.

 They are linked on the City’s website, and Jim asked Tim Cochran if we could be linked on City of Wyoming’s website, not just listed. Tim said that he can check with IT.

 They have a monthly Newsletter. Suggestion was made to have something related to businesses or what is affecting business owners as an article in each monthly news letter and different businesses can make turns each month.

 They have Virtual Tours of businesses on their website – similar to real-estate websites when you are looking at a virtual tour of home. So all members have the benefit of that.

 They make gift baskets for new members/new business in area donated by members, with coupons and information that is member only benefit.

Jim said that he will also look into the East Paris Business Association to see if we can learn anything from them.

Jim also discussed the option of doing a fundraiser to help pay for the flowers. There was not a lot of interest. The question was presented would that be efficient and productive? We have the option of doing a Spaghetti dinner or to ask businesses to adopt/sponsor a planter, i.e. to give a specific dollar amount to this cause. Tom suggested that we only plant 1/3 or ½ of the flowers at first to see how it goes in order to see if it works.

Jim stated that $5000 would cover all the cost for the flowers and that does not include the replacement of trees.
Jim said that it is important to define the area by a “theme” so that visitors and general public can tell when they have entered our area of DABA and when they have left it, i.e. 28th ST to 44th ST.

Tim Cochran said that the Fisher Station development will probably add a lot to that, and best guess is that there will be another millage proposal to try master planning for Division AVE. Jim Leech Jr. is heading the 28th ST project and when that is finished will move to assist with Division AVE. There may also be options for grant money.

Steve Karrip announced Spring cleaning – the date has been set for Saturday April 10th. He asked if we could have the City sweep before and then sweep again after the cleaning. Tim said that he will contact Ron about this and they will get back to Jerry.
Steve also brought up the issue of people walking up and down the AVE and that we need to be proactive about that. Discussion with Chief Carmody regarding an area that hs a cul-de-sac on the corner. Chief said that Wyoming police is understaffed right now and they will do the best they can. Their primary mission is to deal with cars on the road, and they have 6 vehicles out during late night hours. He offered to get together and look at the area in question and have the officers pay better attention to that corner.

Officer Jeff Augustyn – positive remarks regarding Kelloggsville and Godwin High schools wrestling teams both had gold medals in the recent competitions. Kentwood, Wyoming, Walker, Grand Rapids, East Grand Rapids communities are coming together to offer a Police Academy week for free to kids to figure out if this is something they should be going into. This is free to the participants, and Kentwood has hired two officers who attended this academy in the past. This is paid through various sponsorships - $100 for businesses in the community to sponsor this cause or you may offer something to raffle off.

Dave Vanhouten – addressed the issue of planters/flowers and suggested that may be the individual business owners would need to take responsibility to take care of the plants, and there could be training offered. Dave announced that he is in the race for state representative Dist. 77 city of Wyoming and Byron Center, He is asking for support and asked if the DABA will take a position on millage. He recommended that it would be important to take a position on millage, but Tom said that at this time the Association is not taking a position on that.

Ron and Judi Perrin – reported that they have had kids walking through their property after school, and had no problems at all. Nothing was stolen or vandalized and they seem to be friendly about it.

Tim Pomorski – reported that BRT was promoted on radio and expressed that it may be tough to push this through this time. He reported that they had about 460 attendees at the last Kellogsville Hs Rocket Family Night on 2/24/10

Tim Cochran – Confirmed that BRT will be difficult to push through, but they are taking different spins on promoting it within various communities

Greg Mahalick – spoke in favor of using Social Media such as Facebook and Twitter to promote businesses or the Association. He said that they have only had positive experiences and get a lot of leads that way. His goal is to help Division AVE and he will be there at our meetings to keep involved. He reported hat he signed up DC Customs for membership after February meeting.

Harold Mast - Suggested to talk to the owner of Eastern Floral regarding our flowers issue, he may be able to donate or give a special pricing. He also addressed the question of why not extend the DABA are to 54th. Tom said that there had not been enough response and we decided to go through 44th.

Chief Carmody – Violent crime statistics have flattened out, will see if that means that it will stabilize or continue to go down. They are expecting several thousand prisoners to be released early on parole and they are concerned, because there are no jobs in the communities and the crime rate may go up again. They are being proactive with the Hotels, but some local owners are difficult to communicate with.

Aida Slogar – LMCU is participating and sponsoring this year’s Relay for Life in Wyoming on May 14th and 15th at Lamar Park. Will be looking for support from local businesses. Sponsoring the Women’s Expo March 12th – 14th at the Devos Place. Stared doing financial classes at high schools to educate about the enormous amount of debt that the public is in at this time. Completed a class at Godwin HS and will be doing another one at Kelloggsville Family Night on March 24th.

Jerry Degood – stated we need 25 people for the clean-up and confirmed with Steve.

Tom – we are on target with our goals.