August 2009

Tower Grove Business Association

Monthly Meeting Minutes

Monday, August 17, 2009

12:00 noon

Members in Attendance:  Ana Casey (President), Josh Alt (Tin Can/Vice President), Jennifer Coke (The Coke Law Firm/Secretary), Ed Rode (Guarantee Electric/Treasurer), Angelo Sita (St. Louis Development Corporation/Board Member), Dana Gray (Southwest Gardens Neighborhood Association), Chris Kuban (Chemistry Multimedia), Michael Benecick (TFA), Stephanie Demma (3 Monkeys).

• Morgan Ford In Motion – Street music festival will be held on October 3, 2009, from 12:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. at the corner of Morgan Ford & Juniata.  Bands will set up and perform from the stage at Eve’s Garden.  Major headliners will include Javier Mendoza, String Buzz, and Steve Ewing, each performing an hour and a half set.  Three other local bands will be performing in 45 minute sets.  KDHX has agreed to DJ the event and make an “in kind” donation of electrical and sound equipment. 

There will be 14 vendor booths for local businesses to sell/display merchandise/art, etc.  set up at the car wash parking lot.  A sponsor sheet was distributed with the different levels of sponsorship and the amounts, and the booth rental fee.  Bill Wagoner (314-303-3942) from Grove Furnishings is in charge of the sponsor booth rentals.  Potential sponsors should contact Ana Casey (314-402-7288).  We are still looking for sponsors from all sponsorship levels.  PBR, Schlafley and AB have all expressed a potential interest in being the exclusive/major alcohol sponsor, however, no definite commitment has been made.

The website for the festival is www.morganfordinmotion.com.

• Morgan Ford Pet Parade – The 2009 Morgan Ford Pet Parade was held on Saturday, June 27, 2009, and was a great success.  We had more participation in the neighborhood from the residents and local businesses coming out to watch the parade.  The St. Louis Fire Department was on hand to open the fire hydrants to cool off the street and the animals.  The awards ceremony was held at Tower Pub, along with a BBQ which was free for participants and sponsored by the local restaurants (3 Monkeys, Tin Can, and Local Harvest Cafe).  There are photos of the event on the Facebook page (Morgan Ford Pet Parade), and a link to news coverage of the event on Channel 4 news.

Meeting for the 2010 Pet Parade committee will be held on the last Wednesday of each month at 6:30 p.m. at TFA, with the first meeting on , August 26, 2009.  All TGBA members are encourage to participate.

• Bike Racks – 11 bike racks were installed in the business district the last week in July.  Locations include Local Harvest Café (carrot), Local Harvest Grocery (Carrot), 3 Monkeys (martini glass), Tin Can Tavern & Grill (Beer Can), Car Wash (bubbles), Second Chance Auto (scooter), Vintage Haberdashery (legs/boots), The Coke Law Firm (gavel), The Future Antiques (rocket ship), Tower Pub (beer mug), and Stella Blues (fence replica).  The bike racks were designed by local artist Nick Burgett, and manufactured and installed by St. Louis Fabrication Arts.  The racks were funded by federal community block grant money allocated to the project by Alderman Joe Volmer.

• Neighborhood Association Listserve – The Tower Grove South Neighborhood Association has set up a listserve on yahoo groups which is being used for communication between neighborhood residents, as well as marketing opportunities for and communication with local businesses.  The residents on the listserve have been discussing the possibility of doing an “identity event”, which could be used for marketing the neighborhood to the public and increasing our image exposure.  One proposal has been to stage a photograph of all neighborhood residents.  It has been proposed to shoot the photograph from the top of one of the local buildings on the afternoon of Morgan Ford in Motion (Oct. 3) at 4:30 p.m.

• New Website – TGBA has a new website for the business association:  www.tgba.org.  All TGBA members are listed on the site, with a link to the member’s business website (if available).  Any member whose website is not listed on the site should send their site information to Ana Casey for a link to be posted.  The website has announcements of upcoming events, media articles/spots published about the neighborhood, contact information, and information on how to join.

• Other Info on the Web – There is a Facebook page for “The Morgan Ford Strip” with information of activity happening in the neighborhood, as well as a Facebook and Myspace page for “Morgan Ford Pet Parade”.  The Tower Grove Business Association now has a Listserve on Yahoo, as well.  To subscribe, log on to Yahoo Groups, and locate “Tower Grove Business Association”.  The neighborhood also has community listserves of TGSouth and TGSSTL for residential issues.