CHOCVB Board Meeting Minutes 021721

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DocuSign Envelope ID:54EAOF14-1593-4CDB-B6D6-05BA2AB8F6C5 • Mayor Lydia Lavelle—Town of Carrboro - As Mayor Pam Hemminger indicated for the Town of Chapel Hill,the Town of Carrboro is in a very similar financial posture. Sales tax up a little bit, property tax holding steady, and enterprise funds down. We too have tightened our belt this year and not filled positions, not had raises and playing it conservative all year. We are in decent shape as we go through the budget this spring. - The 203 Protect remains our main priority right now. It is in a state right now where it is really important that we continue moving forward. - Several murals have been installed around Carrboro. At last night's town meeting we had a ceremony rather than an in-person ribbon cutting, where we recognized the muralists. These murals all honor the Black Lives Matter movement. One is on the Community Works building and one is downtown on the Carrboro Century Center. We are going to partnering with the Town of Chapel Hill,the Orange County Arts Commission, and others for another one at the intersection of Brewer Lane and Merritt Mill Road. - We are in the middle of our comprehensive plan for Carrboro which will inform how we grow in Carrboro. - The Town of Carrboro is working on getting sidewalks put in on South Greensboro downtown. - Mayor Pam Hemminger and I along with other mayors are watching and advocating with Congress on this upcoming stimulus package which, at the moment, contains funds for local government. • Jon Hartman-Brown—Town of Carrboro, Economic Development - The Carrboro Tourism Development Authority(TDA) has also been challenged financially due to the COVID-19 pandemic so we are currently in a maintain what we have mode. - As Mayor Pam Hemminger indicated in her Town of Chapel Hill update,the Town of Carrboro is also seeing lots of new business inquiries. • Mark Bell—Mayor Pro Tem,Town of Hillsborough - Hillsborough restaurants are holding steady with in-person dining and takeout service. - The Colonial Inn continues to do pretty steady business and are booking events in spring and summer. - Galleries are continuing to do shows with limited access. - Hillsborough's core historic tourism organizations are doing numerous virtual events. The Orange County Museum has a virtual event, Native American Storytelling,tomorrow evening. Burwell School has some events coming up later in February featuring two very prominent African Americans related to Hillsborough. The Hillsborough Arts Council's gift shop is open limited hours. They typically sponsor multiple outdoor events but, since it is winter,things are kind of slow now. • Shannan Campbell—Economic Development Planner,Town of Hillsborough - The Hillsborough Arts Council is starting to look at doing Last Fridays and in what capacity. They have been doing some small pop-up concerts around town,which have been successful. The musicians go to a location, do a little concert and then go to another location, do a little concert, so as not to allow a large crowd to gather. The Arts Council is thinking about doing a similar model for Last Fridays starting in the spring. - Occupancy Tax number are trending close to fiscal year 2017 numbers. People are still staying in our hotels. I suspect the Colonial Inn probably has a lot to do with that. - Our local businesses have pivoted from relying on big outdoor events ere outside and have started creating their own experiential events within their business. For example,the Colonial Inn ran a special for Valentine's day called "Dinner and a Suite" in which they marked down some of their hotel rooms and you could reserve dinner and a stay at the Inn in a package deal. 6 Page CHOCVB BOD Meeting February 17 , 2021