Davidson’s Town Board heard a consultant’s presentation Tuesday night that suggests changes to the town’s logos, signage and branding efforts can boost sales at local shops and help attract new businesses. At its regular monthly meeting, Davidson commissioners also gave the OK to a revised site plan that reduces the commercial portion of a Jetton Street mixed-use development and voted to renew the Ada Jenkins Center’s lease on Gamble Street.

The board put off again a planned vote on a proposed office lease at South Main Square that is part of a town-business partnership in a “green business” incubator.

The meeting lasted more than 4 hours and included a variety of presentations and discussions. They included a request for a $300,000 loan from Davidson-Cornelius Day Care, a financial and operations update on the MI-Connection cable system, a graduation ceremony for Civics 101 participants, and honors for Davidson IB Middle School’s national champion Future City team. The board also heard a presentation about its partnership with local consultant and property owner Kathleen Rose in the PiES “green business” incubator.

LAKE TOWN, COLLEGE TOWN, YOUR TOWN

Tripp Muldrow of Greenville, S.C.-based Arnett Muldrow presented a draft of his firm’s recommendations for the town’s promotional efforts. Since December, Arnett-Muldrow has been working with the town and local merchants to learn more about the Davidson market and create strategies for economic development, branding and promotion.

The presentation unveiled a revised town logo with a new town slogan: “Davidson: Lake Town, College Town, Your Town.”

The draft Mr. Muldrow outlined Tuesday envisions initial efforts in 2010, with a major thrust in 2011-12. There was no discussion Tuesday of how the town might pay for the program.

The firm plans to incorporate Tuesday’s feedback into a final plan to come later.

Read more about the discussion and presentation in a separate article, “Consultant says Davidson needs a marketing makeover.”

OTHER PRESENTATIONS

Also Tuesday night, the board heard these presentations:

• IB Middle School Future City team (Mayor John Woods) – Davidson IB Middle School’s eighth grade team won the national championship last month in Washington, D.C. See DavidsonNews.net’s coverage under the “Future City” tag.
• Civics 101 graduation (John Woods) – Civics 101 is the town’s annual civic education program. For more about the graduation, see our related story, “38 graduate from town’s 4th Civics 101 class.”
• MI-Connection update – Alan Hall, the system’s general manager, told the board that the system gained both business and residential customers in January, including its first “fiber-to-the-business” high-speed internet contract and a 66-home neighborhood in Mooresville that never had cable service before. MI-Connection also has introduced a new “Refer a Friend” program that gives up to $75 credits for both existing and new customers for referrals. And he told the board that the system plans to apply for Google’s “Fiber for Communities” project. The internet search and software giant is looking for a community of about 50,000 to test an ultra-high-speed data network that could handle video and new online applications. The board later approved a resolution in support of the Google application. MI-Connection invites community members to help out with the nomination by visiting the website http://www.migoogleconnection.com/.
• PiES incubator presentation – Kathleen Rose, owner of South Main Square Business Center, told the board that two start-up companies have applied for acceptance into the PiES incubator. The project, in partnership with the town and other area institutions, seeks to promote development of “green” businesses in Davidson. Background under the “PIES” tag on DavidsonNews.net.

VOTES

The board voted 5-0 in favor of a request by developer JCB Urban to revise the master plan for a project called Parcel O of the Little Gate development, on Jetton Street at Davidson Gateway Drive. JCB Urban plans to replace a three-story mixed-use building with three single family homes and a smaller commercial structure. Details and drawings on DavidsonNews.net’s Real Estate page.

Also, the board voted to approve a 9 1/2 year lease with Ada Jenkins Center for the use of its building at 212 Gamble St. The building is leased to Davidson by Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools for $1 a year, and the town in turn leases it to the regional community services center for the same price. The town currently contributes $15,000 toward the cost of Ada Jenkins Center’s utility bills, plus a 50 percent share of any utility bills over $22,5000. The lease renewal approved Tuesday now calls for the utility bills to be switched to the center’s name, and the center will become responsible for paying and managing the bills. The board agreed to continue a $15,000 payment to the center this year, and to help with any utility costs over $22,500 this year. But it plans to revisit its financial support of the center – and other non-profit organizations – annually after this year.

The discussion about the town’s support of non-profit organization extended to a later topic: A request by the financially troubled Davidson-Cornelius Day Care on Gamble Street for a loan of up to $300,000 to help cover outstanding tax bills and operations. The board took no action on the request.

Town Manager Leamon Brice said any loan would have to come from the town’s reserves, though he noted that the town might not be able to afford to make the loan given its own financial situation. A loan would be secured by the day care building.

The town has already been cutting its own budget and has laid off one part-time employee this year as it copes with declining tax revenues and an unexpected request for $180,000 from the MI-Connection cable system. Mr. Brice has warned town staff that more budget cuts and possibly even layoffs might be needed to manage lower revenues, as well as an expected increase in support for the cable system in the coming years.

OTHER VOTES

The board approved 5-0 a list of items on its “consent agenda.” Two items were removed from the list:

The board voted to:

• Approve minutes of February 9 and February 16 board meetings
• Approve both its own 2010-11 legislative agenda and that of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission of which Davidson is a member. Davidson’s sole item involves seeking state legislation allowing the MI-Connetion cable system to keep private some proprietary marketing information. Asked beforehand to explain the push, Town Manager Leamon Brice said the town would continue to allow financial information on the public record, but wants to keep some marketing information out of the hands of its competitors.
• Approve a change in the town’s personnel policy on civil Leave
• Endorse resolution allowing the town to skip competitive bidding for architectural, engineering and surveying projects less than $30,000.
• Approve Parcel O APFO determination for JCB Urban – The developer would be assessed $29,625 for police and a share of a public park. The assessment is under the town’s Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance, which requires developers of new residential projects to pay for a share of services needed because of their developments. Parcel O refers to a mixed-use plan at Jetton Street and Davidson Gateway Drive. More on DavidsonNews.net’s Real Estate page.
• Approve resolution of support to MI-Connection application for the Google project
• Approve FY 2010 budget amendment to reimburse JCB Urban and workers comp refund – the developer would be reimbursed $35,550 for infrastructure work. More on DavidsonNews.net’s Real Estate page.

The board also held a closed session to discuss an unannounced legal matter.