Merchant Mixer/Downtown Business Owners minutes; next meeting is on May 22.

Thanks to Larry Ricke and Pam Peters for taking notes. If you're doing business downtown, please come to the breakfast meeting at Bank Street Brewhouse on the 22nd. I'll have coffee and doughnuts on hand.

Curious about walkability and why it matters? Go here for a very good book.

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Minutes of Downtown Business Owners Wednesday, 04/24/13

The meeting was called to order by acting chairman, Larry Ricke, at 8:00 a.m. at the New Albanian Bank Street Brewhouse.

Businesses in attendance were: Ricke & Associates; YMCA; Develop New Albany; Padgett Museum; Gallery on Pearl; Sew Fitting; New Albanian Brewing Company; Michell, Timperman & Ritz; REMAX Realtors; and the City of New Albany.

The purpose of this group was a topic of discussion. According to Mike Kopp, this group was originally started in his Develop New Albany administration to act as a liaison between the downtown merchants and the Develop New Albany Board of Directors.

Curt Peters was asked to chair this group. After much discussion by those in attendance, it was decided that this group should be separate from all other organizations and this group should be used as a sounding board and depository of information for all the other groups like Develop New Albany; Keep New Albany Clean & Green; lSI; New Albany First; and the City of New Albany. The mission is to be a coalition of downtown business owners to share information by communicating the opportunities and concerns of our downtown businesses.

Old business - Joe LaRocca said he and Develop New Albany wanted what was best for downtown New Albany. Mike Kopp said he was approached by a business located outside of downtown to see how we could help them. This will be referred to Develop New Albany for their response.

New business - Bicentennial Park was discussed by Michael Hall from the City of New Albany. Scheduled opening is mid-May 2013. The city is working on planned entertainment for the downtown area and more would be discussed as plans are finalized.

Two-way street changes were discussed briefly and it was decided to make this the primary agenda item of our next meeting, along with the suggestion to possibly return parking meters to our downtown area and increase promotion of our available surface parking lots.

Next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, May 22nd at 8:00 a.m. at the New Albanian Bank Street Brewhouse. Please come and participate. The City of New Albany will present their findings on traffic flow in downtown New Albany and two way streets will be discussed. We need all downtown business owners' input.