General notes: It’s almost time to get First Friday going again, and that’s what we’re focusing on at Sandy Main Street right now. We’re having a bit of a rough go at the moment with getting our volunteers to assist us (see below under “Sandy Main Street”), but Aubrey and I are not going to let that deter us from putting together the best FF series yet. Some of our local downtown businesses are so amped up for FF that they held their own unofficial version in March, and it was delightful to see the number of people that turned out that evening at SACC, the Library, Sandy Organic, Ox & Marley, the Beer Den and Dita’s. That, my fellow Sandyites, is a great sign for the future…
Commercial Properties (vacancies, new businesses, etc.):
Heidi’s Unique Boutique/Wholesale Payments, Inc.: Cyndi McKenna’s building (Cool Printing) is now fully occupied! The couple that owns Wraptitude in Welches has decided to open a few more unrelated businesses, and have chosen the upstairs segment of Cyndi’s building to house their new ventures.
The rear portion of the space will house Heidi’s Unique Boutique, a women’s accessories retail store. Owner Heidi Campbell will sell leggings, leg warmers, socks, scarves, tank tops and the like, and will branch out into belts, purses and other accessories once the store gets established. Her unique designs are her own creation, and much of her inventory is made locally. Heidi’s husband Ryan Cummings has opened Wholesale Payments Inc., a business-to-business check and credit/debit processing business. Both businesses have been through their initial fire/life safety inspection, and the required changes were so minimal (change front door handle to lever, install fire extinguisher, remove barriers to electrical panel) that Terre has approved their respective business license applications pending re-inspection. They should receive their licenses and certificates of occupancy any day now. [ps: my 1st question to the couple was “So when are you going to open a Wraptitude in Sandy?” Their response: “As soon as we can find an available space with a commercial kitchen!” Now wouldn’t that be cool…]
Iris Healing Arts: Just a quick note to supplement last month’s report on this business…I have recently had occasion to speak with Ms. Michet (she is also a SACC board member), and she informs me that her bottom line has GREATLY improved with this move. Her overhead has been dramatically reduced (50%+), her customers find her new practitioner’s space to be quite comfortable, and Ms. Michet and Ms. Zell are working together quite well. A positive move for all involved.
Two Bros. Mexican Restaurant: Victory! We have uncovered the story behind why this establishment has been closed for lunch recently, and the story has a happy ending. The owner of the restaurant had some health issues that left him unable to drive for a couple of months, and he was commuting to his restaurant from his home on Sauvie Island by bus. He was not able to arrive at the restaurant in time to get food prep done for the lunch crowd, so he served dinner only during that period. However, last week he started driving again and Two Brothers is now back open for lunch. We were also able to address another issue with him (he had received a backflow testing letter and didn’t know what it was – I explained the letter to him, assured him that the testing required was not expensive, and gave him the number of Montgomery’s Backflow Testing, a local business that does this kind of work), and even posted a notice at his request on the City of Sandy’s Facebook page informing that Two Brothers is once again open for lunch. Special thanks to Councilor Gerberg for visiting the restaurant with me and addressing the owner in his native tongue…this was critical to get to the heart of the issue, as well as to assure the owner that we were there to help. Muchas gracias, Olga!
Mike’s Tire Service: Work on this business is coming along – Terre has approved his business license with conditions, and he is free to open for business for the time being. The only remaining work that has not been signed off on yet is the housing for his exterior air compressor, which still needs a coat of paint (to match the building per code), some siding and some seismic straps to secure it to the ground. Mike has until May 2014 to complete this work before re-inspection. Also, Terre has confirmed that the illegal loft in the upstairs of this property has been properly posted and is not in use – research on that issue continues, but should not affect Mike (building owner’s responsibility!)
Country Companies: This new insurance agency has moved in to the upstairs of the Web Steel building, and had a ribbon cutting on 2/21 that was fairly well attended. The offices look very professional, and the ladies that run this office are delightful. They have passed inspection, have their certificate of occupancy, and are open for business.
AntFarm Cafe: Our friends over at AntFarm celebrated the grand opening of their new Café becoming full service early in the month – they now offer sandwiches and home-made soups along with their espresso, pastries and gelato. Although the ribbon cutting was an 8am affair, this was the best attended ribbon-cutting ever! There were between 50-60 people present all told, and the pride was buzzing in the air. Nunpa introduced all of the kids that worked on the project and currently staff the café, and gave a little of the history of the project. Mayor King then gave a brief speech that gave thanks to Nunpa and AntFarm for being an invaluable asset to the community, and I can attest that there were a more than a few moist eyes in the house when he finished. Rumor has it that the Mayor was in danger at one point of becoming emotional himself, but valiantly regained his composure before anyone noticed. Of course, that is just a rumor… 🙂
Sandy Area Chamber of Commerce: Due to the end of both the City of Sandy and pending Clackamas County annual contributions, the Chamber is looking to its lower overhead costs. As part of this operation, the Chamber has greatly pared back its gift shop operations, and will cease to have a gift shop on July 1. As this will greatly reduce the square footage requirements for the organization, the SACC is also looking for a smaller, less expensive space somewhere in the downtown couplet to move to. We have talked about several different locations, and are currently doing our due diligence to determine availability, rents and terms to see which might be the best fit. More to come….
Bunsenbrewers: I have finally made it in to see the current operation, and I believe that Aaron is beginning to hit his stride. He has hired several bartenders, and the one I was conversing with over a pint seemed very knowledgeable about the brewing process, was very personable (he gave me a quick tour of the facilities upon request) and had a positive outlook on both the business and the community. The chemistry theme runs strong through the business – the bartenders wear chemistry lab coats, the furniture is all surplus high school chem lab desks and chairs, and the beers are all named after famous scientists (I need to try “Nye – the Science Rye”, named after Bill Nye, the Science Guy). I told him when he names a beer after my favorite scientist, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, I will buy a keg from him. 🙂
Aaron is looking to add food to his establishment as the next step. He is looking at either building a commercial kitchen, or possibly looking to set up Bethy Rossos and her waffle cart as a food vendor IF there is a change in the code in the near future to allow carts on private property. The Planning Department is currently studying the viability of this option, and will bring the results of that study to Council soon.
Sandy Main Street: We now have our new website up and running. It is still in the build out stage, so not all of the content has been added yet. However, there is infinitely more content there now than there was on our old website, which we had been “locked out” of by the company that designed it. We also purchased sandymainstreet.org in the process of setting the new site up, so both that address and sandymainstreet.com direct to the same page. In related news:
- More on the “lock out”: We had basic editing rights to sandymainstreet.com, but could not fundamentally change the look and feel of the page without admin rights. Scott Brown suggested building a new site and redirecting, and Laura Allen acted as an advisor to SMS to help us get set up. Laura did most of the basic technical setup for us FREE OF CHARGE, and Scott redirected the old web address to the new page last week. Aubrey has been responsible for most of the content, and has been doing a bang-up job so far. But special thanks go to Laura Allen at AEC for stepping in and helping us out with this project. If you happen to run into her at an event, be sure to thank her on behalf of the City. She did a lot of pro bono work to get us to where we are today, and without her technical expertise we would still be floundering…
- The response to our “mandatory” Promotion committee meeting was sadly lacking. We had only 2 committee members show up for the meeting (although one committee member actually brought a friend, who is now on the committee), and only one actually performed the phone calls on behalf of First Friday as we had asked. This puts Aubrey and I in an extremely difficult position, as we will have to make all of the phone calls, collect all of the payments, and distribute all of the materials to participating businesses ourselves in addition to designing, implementing and marketing the program. Our Oregon Main Street advisor, Sheri Stuart, was very abrupt – she has told us that when this has happened in other cities, her advice has been to do what you have time to do, and otherwise let the program fail. I am not willing to do that, as FF is fast becoming integral to the social cohesion of our downtown core. However, it is more than apparent that it is time for some new blood on the Promotion committee, and I will begin recruiting efforts shortly. I would also ask that the City Council please be patient with me, as I am going to have to put some of my economic development work on the back burner so we can ensure the success of Main Street in general, and First Friday 2014 specifically.
Project work:
- The Mayor’s “Business-Friendly” Task Force – The beta version of the “How to Open a Business in Sandy” Guide is now the official version, and it is up and running. I have completed a Building review with Terre and Noryne, and they are largely satisfied with the content from the perspective of the Building Department. I next meet with Tracy to go over the parts of the guide dealing with planning issues – our initial meeting will take place on 3/11. I have also requested feedback from the directors of the SACC as to their comfort level with the Guide, and the responses I have received so far have been wildly positive. 85% complete.
- Presentation to PSU’s PA558 class (Managing Public Projects and Programs) – On 2/24, Mike Walker and Thomas Fisher accompanied me to a session of the Public Administration Department’s class on Public Works Management at the Hatfield School of Government at Portland State (my old program). The class is taught by one of my mentors, Jim Hough (the former city manager of Warrenton and Banks, to name a few), and exposes its students to active public works professionals to give them a better understanding of the field. Mike and Thomas were fantastic – Mike gave a quick history of how we got the Sandy gas tax enacted, and Thomas talked about how he happened to get into the field. What I found most interesting about this night, however, was what the students wanted to talk about – SandyNet Fiber!!! At that point, Mike and I took over the conversation and answered a lot of questions about how SandyNet formed and why we were pursuing this project. It was astounding how up to date the students were regarding this project, and their interest (as Jim later confirmed) was genuine – although Jim asked them to have a couple of questions for us, he never mentioned fiber….they brought that up themselves. I believe that this is proof positive that we are absolutely on the right track with the Fiber To The Home project, especially when it comes to millenials – If we build it, they will come!!!
Conferences/training: No conferences in the month of February. [Next conference for me will probably be the OCCMA Spring Conference at Skamania Lodge in late March of 2014.] The only training I received in February was a day-long workshop in Salem regarding the Scenic Bikeway Program and their newest project, the newly ascribed Cascading Rivers Scenic Bikeway between Estacada and Detroit. More bicycle tourism options in the region will only add to our tourism draw – and I wouldn’t mind looking into a “Mount Hood Scenic Bikeway” sometime soon…..more to come.