Downtown Taos MainStreet Quarterly Status Report to Taos Town Council Workshop Meeting January 27, 2020

Presented byElizabeth Crittenden Palacios, PresidentCharles Whitson, Executive DirectorJim Pollard, Design Committee Chair

Quarterly Status ReportActivities since October 2019 Report to Town Council

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AGREEMENTIncluded in your packets is a document titled STATUS OF TASKS PERFORMED TO DATE January 22, 2020. This is an itemized status report of all activities agreed between TOT, NMMS and Downtown Taos MainStreet (DTMS). Some activities of significance may be repeated in this report.

CURRENT VOLUNTEERSDTMS currently benefits from the efforts of fifty one (51) volunteers and one (1) full time employee. We are proud to count among our volunteers, Mayor Barrone (Advisory Committee), Council Members Hahn (Organization), Evans (Design) and Maestas (Economic Vitality), Town Manager Bellis (ex-officio Board Member), and (3) Town employees, Tim Corner (Mapping Committee) Katrina Armijo (Promotion Committee) and Mitch Miller (TCA Committee), and Cynthia Spray,(Design Committee) Chair of the Historic Preservation Commission.

The demographics of our volunteer base is impressive, representing themselves and such interests as Centinel Bank, Kit Carson Electric Co-Op, The Couse-Sharp Historic Site, Harwood Museum, LOR Foundation, Taos Tree Board, Taos Acequia Association, Taos County Chamber of Commerce, TEN, the Hive, NM SBDC, UNM -Taos, SBDC, UNM TECC, Taos Gallery Association, Taos Center for the Arts, Taos Artists Organization, Rio Grande Ace Hardware, Enchanted Circle Trails Association, Dunn House Management, KNCE Radio, The Paseo, Old Spanish Trails Association, Paseo Project, Rocky Mountain Youth Corps, the US Forest Service as well as a large number of independent professionals and business owners.

Our total membership has stayed fairly constant for the last 18 months, with people coming in and out as their personal needs require. We started out with (53), have dropped as low as (45), and are back up to a comfortable level. Some folks are involved for only a few hours every few months, or for one particular activity, and others are donating as much as 30 hours per week or more.

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR After a lengthy search and interview process in the last quarter of 2019 (we considered 19 different applicants), DTMS selected Charles Whitson of Taos, to be our Executive Director. Charles is a native Taoseno, went to Taos High with a significant number of our volunteer members, and then on to UNM in Albuquerque. He is very talented, organized, charismatic and eager. Through his employment at LMNOC Communications as Director of Sales he is already familiar to and on a first name basis with so many of our stakeholders. He started on January 1st with a three year contract, and has hit the ground running. We are pleased to welcome him on board. His immediate tasks include outreach, marketing, data reporting, and people management.

BOARD OF DIRECTORSOur current Board of Directors numbers ten; we started with eight (8), lost two(2) and gained two (2) new members this month, Andrew Gonzales and Michael Santistevan. We have one additional candidate considering our offer of membership, and we have targeted two additional candidates for possible appointment in early Summer. Following the Board’s commitment to solid representation from our community, the Organization Committee refined a Board Nomination process, application procedures, a matrix of attributes for consideration. Over 310 hours of volunteer effort went into the selection and recruitment of the Executive Director and our new Board Members.

Our current lineup of Board Members and Officers:Elizabeth Crittenden Palacios, PresidentGenevieve Oswald, Vice PresidentVicky Zilloux, TreasurerSonya Cordova Struck, SecretaryAndrew Gonzales (New) Michael Santistevan (New)James Dostal Davison KoenigJim Pollard Barbara CrewsRick Bellis, ex officio

The Organization Committee has developed staggered terms in the classes.

COMMITTEE CHAIRSThe MainStreet America model of operations is based on the Four Point Approach… Design, Promotion, Economic Vitality and Organization, hence our four major Committees. Some of our Four Point Committees break down into subcommittees for specific actions or goals. Our Bylaws dictate that each Four Point Committee be chaired by a Board Member.

Design Committee Promotion Committee Economic Vitality OrganizationTCA Master Plan Social Media Merchant Data FundraisingMRA Merchant Outreach Vacant Storefront Art/MuralsAlley Network Volunteer Meetings Volunteerism Grant WritingBike Network Website & Newsletter Shared Space GovernanceFaçade Squad Events DOT MitigationCrosswalks/SidewalksTree CanopyAcequia CommitteeMapping CommitteeFestival Street /Pop UP Planters

OFFICE SPACEAs of January 1, 2020 we have rented shared space for a single person, and use of the common Conference Room, from The Paseo Project (HUB) at 630 Paseo del Pueblo Sur (the original Holy Cross Hospital complex). This is where our Executive Director is stationed. It is a temporary arrangement as we seek larger more permanent space in a more centrally located, highly visible downtown location. We are hoping this will be by way of In-Kind donation from one of our sustaining partners.

SUSTAINING PARTNERS – FUNDING FOR OPERATIONSOn November 18th, Elizabeth Palacios and Jim Pollard made a Funding Request and presentation of the Downtown Taos MainStreet Strategic Plan to the Taos Leadership Forum. This was an effort to make one significant presentation of our story and our needs to the major Taos sources for non-profit funding all at one time. Our intention was to then let them talk about their joint commitments to community revitalization, and we would then follow up with individual meetings to come to an agreement for three to five year sustained funding for our Operations (Program funding for individual projects was not included). The presentation was well received, and individual follow up is now under way. Attendees (in addition to Rick Bellis TOT representative) included:

Kit Carson Electric Co-Op (commitment is confirmed, details being negotiated)Centinel Bank ($15,000 three year commitment agreed, additional benefits possible)UNM Taos (In Kind commitment made, details being negotiated)Taos Community Foundation (Is currently exploring some short term, low amount

funding availability and has agreed to help work out a longer term program to benefit DTMS).

Taos Ski Valley, Inc. (follow up appointment pending)Taos County Commission (not in attendance; Chairman Blankenhorn has agreed to put us on Workshop Agenda to present to the Commission) Holy Cross Hospital (it is not expected to produce any funding results)The LOR Foundation (committed to funding small projects, not able to fund Operations)

Additional sustaining funding requests are outstanding with US Bank and Chevron Moly Mine Fund. They seem to be very interested in participating, but follow up is required.

The Organization Committee has developed an extensive TARGET list of smaller potential donors.

CONTRIBUTIONS & GRANTS RECEIVEDIn the last several months we have received a Program Grant from the New Mexico Resiliency Alliance for $3500 for use on the POP UP Park/Planter Project scheduled for installation this April, as well as an unrestricted $2000 Grant from the Maddox Foundation (some of these funds were used to make up the shortfall experienced from the Holiday Farolito Program, and we are attempting to recover that shortfall from other sources.

Individual gift total $2,400 with in kind gift of equipment and personal expenses not reimbursed estimated to be $3,200.An extensive list of possible Grantors and major donors has been identified by our Organization Committee and the Re-vitalization Specialists from NMMS.

LIGHTING OF LEDOUX 2020Our Promotion Committee worked for the second year to help coordinate and setup this long-standing community event. It was a great success, with no expenditures required on our part, other than volunteer efforts, which were led by Vicky Zilloux and Sonya Davis of the Harwood Museum.

HOLIDAY FAROLITO LIGHTING PROGRAMAt the request of Mayor Barrone, DTMS volunteers, led by Elizabeth Palacios and Vickie Zilloux, worked exceedingly hard to make this a success. The Promotion Committee coordinated with 134 Downtown District businesses. Farolitos were made available at a discounted price thanks to Rio Grande Ace Hardware, and the committee arranged with a local contractor to install. DTMS costs were billed back to merchants. DTMS provided lights to 70 businesses and installed at 50 locations. The total cost of the Project was $4400 in direct expenses and over 100 hours of volunteer time. (Not all merchants are repaying DTMS, and we expect a deficit). If this effort is to be repeated next year, and DTMS is to participate, we must obtain a grant of approximately $6000 from Town or merchant sources. Perhaps this is something for the Council to consider as you prepare next year’s budget.

FESTIVAL STREET – PHASE I (POP UP PLANTERS)Festival Street represents a three to five year plan for the conversion of Civic Plaza Drive to a pedestrian friendly, attractive place for citizens and visitors to attend arts and craft fairs, pre-concert gatherings and other traffic free community social events. It will be implemented in stages. On the last two weekends in April, DTMS with the help of TOT, will install our very first (and highly visible) physical installation (see sketch 1) at the east end of Civic Plaza Drive. Sketch 2 shows additional proposed stages of improvements not yet approved. In the upper right corner of this Sketch you will see a representation of the REBAR TREES to be installed. See

Sketch 3 for detail of these “sculptural trees”. The road surface below the five planters with natural tree stump seating, will be painted a vivid color such as rust red to hide dirt and snow melt material.There are five planters with seating… (2) three foot diameter planters, (2) four foot diameter, and (1) five foot diameter.

Sketch 1 Martyrs Restaurant

The seating is made from two foot tall cottonwood stumps (some from the Plaza Cottonwood and some from a donation). They have been cut to 18 inch tall lengths and have been delivered to the Taos Charter School, where several students will strip the bark, sand them, seal them with a protective coating and decorate them with student selected designs using wood burning or Dremel tools.

After the Planters and Rebar Trees have been put in position, the volunteers will attach the lightly rusted steel sheathing around them and begin filling them with gravel, landscape cloth and water fill/wicking mechanisms. Arrangements have been made with Petree’s Nursery to obtain and nurture some relatively mature Wisteria vines so that we have some flowering this season. Additional lower height plantings will complete the installation.

Our Promotion, economic Vitality and Organization Committees are participating in this effort to “get the word out”, generate publicity, seek volunteers and raise any additional monies needed. This will be a good opportunity for Town Officials to participate. We picked this weekend timeframe to coincide with Earth Day, Arbor Day, Spring Clean Up and acequia activities around the downtown.

MULTI LAYERED DTMS MAPhttps://totgis.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=4f3047c5cf8d460191a3f873b41419fa

Some of you have already received this link to our Multi Layered Map of Downtown Taos. This may be one of the most important DTMS achievements so far. Once the map is opened and one or more layers are enabled, the information and format are powerful.You can click on any building in town and find out who the owner is, how big the klot is, and assessed value. On other layers that same click will tell you about the business licenses that occupy that property. You can see where our Crosswalks are as well as where they aren’t but should be; you can see our downtown acequias as well as the tree canopy identifying all downtown trees by species, size, age, health and whether or not they interfere with power lines. This was developed by Town GIS Specialist Tim Corner, and our Vista Volunteer Nick Nagawiecki, as well as all the volunteers who gathered the information. It has been a tremendous help to all our various committees to date.

CURRENT & PENDING SERVICE REQUESTSCurrent Pending RequestsTCA Master Plan VolunteerismFestival Street Vacant Storefront ProgramPop Up Planters Shared Work Space FeasibilityMRA Board Training

Economic Data Reporting Shared Information SystemTree Canopy 3 Stage Master Plan for ReplacementDOT mitigation

OTHER ACTIVITIES UNDER CONSIDERATIONRegularly Scheduled Merchant MeetingsRegularly Scheduled Community EventsFundraising Events and ActivitiesNewsletterWebsite redesign & Social Media PlanMerchant Contact and Business Resource listsCommunity Map Poles (24) locationsArt in Public Places

Submitted byElizabeth Crittenden Palacios,

President

Charles Whitson Charles Whitson, Executive Director

Jim Pollard Jim Pollard, Design Committee Chair