June 9, 2025 Meeting Minutes 

Chairman Chas Stevens called the meeting to order at 6:00 pm on June 9, 2025.

Kevin Sluka conducted roll call and the following Board Members were present:   

Present: Natalia Kleyman, Kevin Sluka, Chas Stevens, Andrianna Popowych, Rick St Pierre, RanD Pitts, Tania Althoff, Conlyn Chan 

Missing: Chris Edwards, Beth Akkaway

CHAIRMAN REMARKS
Chas wanted to take this time to thank committee chairs for working hard. The design team has proposals to approve. The Promotions team successfully completed four events and more are coming. 

APPROVAL OF MEETING MINUTES

May meeting minutes will be approved in July. 

COMMITTEE REPORTS

1. Finance Report (Chas):
   1. Chas is recommending we get our insurance broker in soon to review what we have and make recommendations. 

2. Infrastructure & Design Team (Kevin/Tania)
   1. American water work is moving along. They have another two months of work. PSE&G will be meeting in July to discuss Division Street. Hoping to have that construction between January and March of 2026.
   2. The design committee voted to move forward with the Big Belly pilot program on Division Street. Potentially interested in moving throughout the downtown. Lead time on getting the cans is 8-10 weeks. The board voted to approve this proposal. 
   3. Exotic plant proposals in three phases for Ghiradina walkway. As well as water services. The board voted to approve these proposals. 
   4. Proposal to move forward with a new Christmas tree to lease which would include storage and maintenance. The board voted to approve this proposal. 
3. Promotions (Natalia)
   1. We passed 18K followers in May on Instagram. The accounts reached is up by 46%. Facebook reached 76K accounts and 41% of views were from non followers. 21,600 followers on Facebook which has been steadily rising. 
   2. Girls Night Out was up in visitation by 12% and over 600 tickets sold which is on par or better than last year. Participating businesses noted they did well that night.
   3. International Street Fair was a success with a few hiccups. The road didn’t close on time, garbage was an issue. 
   4. We sponsored the community zone for the Tour of Somerville. Safety was a bit of an issue as cars snuck around the barriers. There were few kids activities so bringing in more next year would help the event as well as more food offerings.
   5. Next event is Pride on June 26th, and movie nights start July 9th.

4. Economic Vitality
   1. We’ve had a few grand openings and grand re-openings lately. Including Pioneer Family Foundation re-opened, K&L Auto Body has new management and re-opened, Kulture Collectables will be opening soon, Fleet Feet is coming along to open soon. 

DIRECTOR’S REPORT

• We currently don’t have a director, however, the interview process is coming along. 
• Chas has been communicating with various organizations that would potentially lead the charge for events to do for the 250th celebration including the Culture  and Tourism Group, The Heritage Trail Foundation, and the Wallace House. More to come on that as talks continue. 
• We had talked about bringing in a graphic designer and after review we decided that internal staff is able to handle it. 

NEW ITEMS/UPDATE

• Mayor Gallagher came to tonight’s meeting. He mentioned that with Olivia’s resignation comes a great opportunity.  He mentioned we should be defining what Downtown Somerville currently looks like, and talk about how we want it to grow, and what we want it to be. We should be prioritizing what the district needs, and align that with a new director. 

ADJOURNMENT

Meeting adjourned at 7:05 pm, next meeting July 14th at 6pm