1. MAP Conference

• Working on a “session” for the MAP conference focused on the mall – may want to introduce some business owners during "walking tour."

2. Night Market

• Riley and Brent are interested in organizing a "night market" to utilize underused spaces on the mall and to show capability to host the farmer's market someday; also to help get more retail business on the mall (retail cluster)

• First step: Determine scope, set initial date, map the available spaces, contact vendors, get permit

  • Vendor list could be obtained from Farmer’s Market, Civic Center

  • BID did a map of vendor spaces for christmas markets years ago; Abigail will look for this list from the Micky-era of vendor spots; then need to do own map/proposal

  • Subcommittee formed with Brent, Riley, Savannah, Abigail

  • Abigail notes that BID economic vitality committee has been discussing/working on same idea, so we should partner with them

• Target Friday, September 19, 2025

  • Oktoberfest is Sat., Sep. 20, 2025

  • Farmer’s Market still operational, so opportunity to get vendors from out of town to participate night before

3. Open container proposal

• Discussion of prior efforts to have open container on the mall; in order to have a meaningful discussion, agreed to do anonymous comments and then talk about as a group

• Recognize not all interests are the same

• Possibility of having open container for limited hours (i.e., noon to 10pm)

4. Fundraiser – August 15, 2025

• Sean wants to do a 40th birthday/fundraiser for the foundation

• Need to get website up -- Sean is working on this and will be reaching out to Mac for help

• Dan to open bank account -- goal is to get site and donations acceptable buy July 15

5. Designation

• Continued discussion of the walking mall designation as a right of way or park

• Believe that the City, as part of Forward Helena, has designated the mall a right of way

• But for long-term planning, want to better understand what other walking malls around the country do – Dan volunteered to reach out (below is the list from the prior discussion):

  • 3rd Street Promenade - Santa Monica, CA (ROW’s, removable poles, shops, food, coffee. Similar to our Walking Mall

  • Pearl Street Mall - Boulder, CO

  • Kalispell, MT - Rail Park (they spent $10 million to  tear up the railroad tracks to install a walking path with hopes of flanking it with buildings and businesses)

  • Billings, MT - 29th Street (string lights and events on ROW)

  • Denver, CO - 16th Street (music/pianos, public transportation, etc.)

  • Stephen Ave Walk - Calgary, CA

  • Bourbon Street - New Orleans, LA (which I think is currently in discussion to be designated as pedestrian only)

  • Pitt Street Mall - Sydney, AU

  • Church Street Marketplace - Burlington, VT

6. Updates from BID

• Abigail from BID noted that BID is working on getting the original designer of the BID trash cans to place on the mall (the current ones were temporarily placed by Parks); BID will have art on the trash cans from the holter kids with a QR code that will allow feedback for emptying a can, etc.

• BID is working on a survey going out; encouraged the group to participate so BID gets feedback from business owners as well as property owners

• There is a Parking Commission Meeting Thursday at 4pm in the City/County Building - Abigail encouraged people to attend as she knows there are serious concerns related to the City's current enforcement and its adverse impact on employees/retail businesses

Notes from Meeting w Sanbell
Jeremy, Danielle and Chris from Sanbell, an engineering, planning and landscape architecture firm with offices in Helena and around the West. Jeremy is based in Helena, Danielle and Chris are in Bozeman. Danielle is originally from Helena and Chris used to run the Downtown Bozeman Partnership. They are interested in helping us. If it's of interest to the group, we can have them do a small discussion of what we can do to lay the groundwork for a walking mall capital "plan." Chris works in placemaking studio – working with landscape architecture and planning

Minutes from 6/3/2025

(1) Elected Brent Lashinski, Vicki Lashinski, Savanna Barrett, and Jonathan Aldrich to the Board of Directors 

(2) Adopted bylaws unanimously

(3) Adopted the conflict of interest policy unanimously

(4) Elected Sean Morrison to serve as Secretary unanimously

(5) Elected Dan Bay to serve as Treasurer unanimously

(6) Elected Riley Tubbs to serve as President unanimously

(7) Discussed three different workstreams moving forward: (A) seeking funding and/or a partner to do a capital plan for the walking mall; (B) ongoing maintenance needs; and (C) website / marketing.

(A) On the long-term plan for the walking mall, the group discussed the role planning would serve in leading to funding major upgrades and revisioning. The group also discussed how prior plans, such as the multi-modal study, have addressed the walking mall, but not comprehensively. Commissioner Andy Shirtliff explained the role of planning in seeking funds to execute capital improvements. The group reached some consensus that the Foundation would not likely directly fund planning, but would rather partner with and/or push the City to do planning for the Mall. Additionally, we discussed issues with the Mall's current designation as a right of way, with intermittent parks. It was agreed that this designation should be dealt with as part of the long-term capital plan.

(B) For ongoing maintenance needs, the group identified maintenance priorities, in no particular order:

(i) Trash receptacles -- BID Manager Abigail Dolan says that the BID is planning to purchase additional receptacles and intends to place them on the walking mall. In the past, the BID has avoided replacing the receptacles on the Mall due to ambiguity about responsibility between different City departments. Thus, any ideas and/or suggestions in regards to receptacles for the Mall should be referred to BID. We should stay apprised of the progress on this issue.

(ii) Dead trees -- Ms. Dolan says that Growing Friends is planning to replace at least some of the dead tress on the Mall. This is another issue we should follow-up with Growing Friends to discuss their plans and stay apprised.

(iii) Surface -- the current patchwork of pavement, brick, and other surfaces on the Mall is in very poor shape, creating ADA concerns and tripping hazards. Not sure who we need to raise this issue with at the City, although given the Mall's designation as a right of way, that issue may need to be raised with Transportation Director David Knoepke. 

(iv) Landscaping / weeds -- the parks areas on the Mall are also in sore shape. It was suggested that the City Parks Manager could work with the Foundation to arrange a volunteer day for pulling weeds. Although we also would like to see some regular maintenance by Parks.

(v) Lighting -- this covered a broad range of issues, starting with the City's recent approval of expenditures to fix some of the lights on the Mall. Commissioner Shirtliff said he could try to get more clarity on what the City actually intends to fix. We also discussed the BID's current effort to get approval from building owners for hooking up overhead decorative lights. The BID is going block-by-block to get building owner approval and is working now on the 300 and 400 blocks. They have not yet started on the Mall, but we could try to get buy-in and approval ahead of time. The idea is that lights strung over the Mall would be up year round, while they would be seasonal on the 300 and 400 blocks.

(vi) Unused and/or underused space -- the group discussed unused and underused spaces, including private retail space, such as the Carroll College properties, and public spaces, such as Performance Square. The overall feeling is that there is too much underused and/or unused space. BID has a long-term plan to try and address the Carroll properties. More discussion on this will be needed.

(C) On marketing/website, Sean Morrison noted that he had purchased the domain names for helenawalkingmall.org and walkingmallfoundation.org. Mac Krug at Imagine Design is willing to help build out some of the basic marketing and/or website with Mr. Morrison. Mr. Morrison will create a photo repository through this gmail account (helenawalkingmallfoundation@gmail.com) for people to add photos they have of the Mall.

(8) The Board agreed to hold its next meeting at the Placer on June 8th.

First, I want to renew the call for any public spaces / pedestrian malls that we can use for inspiration and/or instruction on how the Walking Mall should be designated, managed, and maintained. If you have any additional places, please let me know. I will eventually put them into a google doc to share, where we can identify details we like and start making note of the designation (park, street, etc.). At the last meeting, I got the following list (in no particular order):

(1) 3rd Street Promenade - Santa Monica, CA (ROW’s, removable poles, shops, food, coffee. Similar to our Walking Mall)

(2) Pearl Street Mall - Boulder, CO

(3) Church Street Marketplace - Burlington, VT

(4) Pitt Street Mall - Sydney, AU

(5) Bourbon Street - New Orleans, LA (which I think is currently in discussion to be designated as pedestrian only)

(6) Stephen Ave Walk - Calgary, CA

(7) Denver, CO - 16th Street (music/pianos, public transportation, etc.)

(8) Billings, MT - 29th Street (string lights and events on ROW)

(9) Kalispell, MT - Rail Park (they spent $10 million to  tear up the railroad tracks to install a walking path with hopes of flanking it with buildings and businesses)

Second, I would like to start putting together our Form 1023 (application for tax exempt status). This is relatively easy, but I need to confirm the individuals who are willing to serve as Board members. To confirm, I have:

(1) Dan Bay

(2) Sean Morrison

(3) Riley Tubbs

(4) Savannah Barrett

(5) Jonathan Aldrich

(6) Brent Lashinski

(7) Vicki Lashinski

Finally, below are some brief minutes from our last meeting. Please Let me know if I'm missing anything -- I will try to take more formal minutes as we progress:

(1) Discussed the City's issues with using the walking mall for parades. Discussed having a better line of communication with the City and working with the City to address concerns.

(2) Discussed the need to bring a proposal to the City on how the Walking Mall should be designed (i.e., street, right-of-way, park, etc.) (see list of inspiration places above). This is a first step towards identifying and prioritizing infrastructure improvements, such as string lights and any improvements for safety (parade barricades, removable bollards for summer evenings, etc.).

(3) Discussed having the Art Walk folks come to our May meeting.

(4) Discussed having a "trash cleanup day."

(5) Discussed how to address vacancies on the Walking Mall, including the spaces owned by Carroll College.

(6) Had a presentation from the Tour Train, who will be doing school tours in May. Agreed all around that we would like any changes to the Mall to accommodate the Tour Train's continued access. 

I will be sending out another email, at a later date, regarding the next meeting (either April or May).