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| The following summary minutes have not been approved by Simpsonville City Council. An official copy of the minutes will be available after adopted by City Council at City Hall 118 NE Main St. Simpsonville. Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, notice of this meeting date, time, place and Agenda was posted on the bulletin board at City Hall and faxed to the newspapers, radio stations, television stations and any concerned citizens. |
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SIMPSONVILLE CITY COUNCIL MINUTES WORKSHOP SESSION October 23, 2007 6:30 P.M.
CALL TO ORDER: Mayor: Call the October Workshop Meeting of Simpsonville City Council to order. Ms. Bodkins would you call the roll please.
ROLL CALL: Ms. Bodkins: Yes sir: Councilmember Bridges: Here Councilmember Garrett: Absent Councilmember Lawrence: Here Councilmember Bagwell: Here Councilmember Zitricki: Here Councilmember Larson: Here Mayor Waldrop: Here
Mayor: Thank you Ms. Bodkins. Council Member Garrett called last week and said that he would be out of town this week and made his regrets for missing this very important meeting, as they all are, but he’ll be back soon.
INVOCATION Mayor: All right. Is there anyone here who would like to ask for blessings upon this meeting in your own personal way. All right, Mr. Larson would you ask blessings upon this meeting in your own personal way please.
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
CITIZEN COMMENTS Mayor: All right. This is the portion of our program where we invite citizen comments. You can come and say anything you’d like to us and this is the workshop meeting so we’ll be glad to interact with you. Ms. Bodkins did anyone sign up tonight.
Ms. Bodkins: No sir.
Mayor: And we have no one on the Agenda so we won’t have to interact with anyone.
ADMINISTRATOR’S QUARTERLY UPDATE Mayor: Next on the Agenda is the Administrator’s Quarterly Update. And I’m sure – let me add the Administrator’s Quarterly Brief Update.
Mr. Hawes: Very brief. We don’t have many projects going on in the City right now.
Mayor: Yeah, right.
Mr. Hawes: I just wanted to give you a quick update on some of the things we’ve got going on. First of all I wanted to tell you that we received word that the City has received an Urban Forestry grant from the SC Forestry Commission. You may remember a couple of months ago we explained that we were going to apply for that grant. And this will allow us to do an $8,500 landscaping project, which involves planting trees in the amphitheater at Heritage Park . And we will be purchasing the trees and installing them in late fall or early winter. And that is noted to be the best time for transplanting of trees. So we may even do something in conjunction with Arbor Day which is in early December. So that would be a – that’s just a real positive thing to receive that grant.
Also want to update you on the Boyd/Morton drainage project. This is a $160,000 project and it is through pre-engineering and ready to move to the construction stage. There was a change in the engineering team used by GCRA but they are now back up to speed. There will be a pre-bid meeting with perspective bidders in the next couple of weeks and bids will soon be advertised. And this is funded through CDBG Funding.
We are looking into improvements along Davenport Road as we prepare for the resurfacing next spring or summer. One suggestion was a three-way stop treatment at it’s intersection with Pinionwood and I am awaiting SCDOT’s analysis of that intersection. We have notified the C-Funds Committee that we intend to use the $150,000 matching grant program for the Davenport Road resurfacing project. To be completed early spring – I mean next spring or summer.
The Shoutfest Event at Heritage Park held all day this past Sunday went very well. 18 Christian Rock Bands performed on two stages for the thousands in attendance. This ran concurrently with the baseball tournament at the park as well. We utilized what we call the meadow, located next door to the amphitheater for the bulk of the Shoutfest parking, and there were no issues whatsoever.
Preparations are on-going for next years amphitheater operations as well. We are beginning the planning for Freedom Weekend Aloft and are looking into other possibilities at our Recreation and Entertainment Complex.
The Municipal Association of SC Hometown Road Show was held right here in Simpsonville at the Activity and Senior Center on October 11 th . It was attended by Municipal leaders from throughout the Upstate and the Midlands . The Executive Director of the Municipal Association of SC, Howard Duvall, also got to tour Heritage Park . And needless to say he was impressed. So we’re proud to hold that road show and we hope that other entities, including the Municipal Association look to Simpsonville for holding those types of events.
Also the downtown streetscape project is moving right along with about 80% of Phase I of the project complete. This is the phase where the underground conduit is placed and the sidewalks are rebuilt. We expect all of the underground conduit to be set in place and Phase I to be complete by the end of November. We also have bid elements of Phase II and Phase III. And that’s a quick update on the projects.
Mayor: Good thank you Mr. Hawes.
COUNCIL COMMENTS Mayor: And we’ll go into Council Comments immediately. And I’m sure someone might have some responses to your report or something of their own. So who’d like to go. Mrs. Bagwell.
Ms. Bagwell: Thank you very much for checking on that Davenport/Pinionwood Stop sign issue. I look forward to hearing what they have to say. I wanted to ask you, have you heard anything about the Grandview Drive , Fairview Road intersection – about making that a straight across lane.
Mr. Hawes: I know that is in the process.
Ms. Bagwell: You’re still looking at it or it’s in the process of being…..
Mr. Hawes: It’s in the process of being designed as I understand it. Joe might be able to – he’s nodding his head – I believe it’s in the design process. It has to go through a couple of iterations at SCDOT because that’s entirely their intersection and interchange. But they are in the process of designing exactly where the lane markings will go and exactly how the actuated signals will be handled. Because the actuators themselves will have to be moved.
Ms. Bagwell: Okay. Very good. And then also to commend those people who did organize and bring Shoutfest, it was, I was there and it was a great event. It was well organized. So thank you for bringing that in.
Mayor: Did you ever pay for your ticket?
Ms. Bagwell: I attempted to.
Mayor: All right, anyone else. Mr. Zitricki
Mr. Zitricki: Thank you Mr. Mayor. Mr. Hawes, I had some inquiries from some residents about a stop sign. Making a 3-way stop on Almond and Dunbarton. This has been brought up before. I’m sure the Chief’s looked at it in the past. Can we revisit this and see if we can put a stop sign there or if that’s not feasible, how about Bonwood – it’s right down – more towards Fernwood and a possibility of Capewood.
Mr. Hawes: Capewood at where
Mr. Zitricki: Capewood – Gatewood – Gatewood and S. Almond. That’s a long stretch of road and people get some high rates of speed down through there. We need to revisit that and check it out.
Mr. Hawes: We’ll look at those possibilities.
Mayor: Well let me comment on that since that happens to be close to my house. My recommendation would be to take a look at Hillpine and S. Almond. Which is about centrally located down that stretch of S. Almond and Dunbarton which I talked with the Chief, several months ago – about the Dunbarton sign and as I recall there was some good reason – line of site issue or something that he concluded – we concluded that it just wouldn’t work there. But it wouldn’t be a bad idea to look at all those intersections down through there and pick one. Okay – that’s all I’ll say about that at this time. Excuse me for interrupting. Go ahead.
Mr. Zitricki: That’s quite alright. Mr. Hawes, at our last meeting you weren’t in attendance and I asked Mr. Dyrhaug if he could give us an update on the streetscape and he did his best. But it wasn’t as well as you can do so if you can update as to how that’s progressing.
Mr. Hawes: Uh –
Mayor: He just did.
Mr. Zitricki: No, no we see all the work going on out there – how are the business owners – how are they faring with this. Is it hurting their businesses. Are people about able to park anywhere or are we getting any complaints.
Mr. Hawes: I’m not aware of any complaints that we’ve received regarding interruptions in business because we’ve been very careful to minimize those types of impacts. In other words we greatly work to keep at least one entrance to any business open at all times, if they have multiple entrances. If they have a single entrance we would work to take care of that entrance in the evening after they’re closed or only closing half of that entrance at a time. I haven’t received any complaints beyond a single one that occurred on the day when the gas line was hit. By the way that gas line was not marked by the Palmetto Utility Location Service either. So we were not digging blindly but we were digging with the information that we were required to have and that hit the gas line and that’s where we got our complaint.
Mr. Zitricki: Okay. And thank you. That’s all.
Mayor: Okay – Mr. Larson
Mr. Larson: I don’t know what – if this is significant but I was talking to the owner of the printing shop there on the corner – M-Press and he said when they had his sidewalk blocked off his business actually picked up those couple of days so – for whatever reason he was glad to see the construction.
Mayor: All right – Ms. Lawrence – well I’ve seen your name all over town but it’s hard to retain it you know.
Ms. Lawrence: Oh yes, okay – talking about stop signs, again what about South and W. Curtis.
Mr. Hawes: They’re in the same review status with SCDOT
Ms. Lawrence: Well every bit of traffic that goes through South and Richardson then goes through South and Curtis. So if it was worthy of one, why are we having so much trouble getting it at the other.
Mr. Hawes: I think because SCDOT doesn’t have up to date numbers on it. Now from what I understand they were going to have people out there in September after school back into session. They were real concerned about using summer only numbers. That’s why they had to wait into September. Now I’ve tried to reach Eric Dillon today because I anticipated that type of a question – but I was not able to get him. I will say that I expect he should have something resolved on that particular intersection in the next couple of weeks.
Ms. Lawrence: Okay – thank you.
Mayor: Ms. Bagwell
Ms. Bagwell: One other question – I had someone bring up to me an issue concerning travel ball and I know Robbie’s not here to address this issue with but if you could possibly just look into – my understanding is that some of the Churches in the area were having issues with loosing people on Sunday mornings because we start our ball games at like 9:00 a.m. at Heritage Park. I know that Easley has changed the way they do some things. Several other cities have as well. Is that a feasibility issue – I mean is it something that can feasibly be done. Is it something that’s an issue for the Rec Department for the traveling teams. I know it puts the traveling teams later getting home but where does it benefit us by having them start early to is the question. So if you wouldn’t mind looking into that.
Mr. Hawes: I’ll be glad to look into that with the Recreation Department and see what their thoughts are on it and get back with you.
Ms. Bagwell: Possibly starting like at 1:00 or so. 12:00-1:00 somewhere in there. Thank you.
Mayor: Okay – is that just a flip of the pen. All right, hearing no one else, I don’t have anything to say either so we’ll move on to New Business.
NEW BUSINESS: • Presentation of Government Finance Certificate of Achievement Mayor: Mr. Hawes I think you have a presentation that you want to talk about.
Mr. Hawes: Yes sir, Mr. Mayor and Council. I’m extremely proud to announce that the City of Simpsonville was awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting by the Government Finance Officers Association of the United States and Canada , for it’s comprehensive annual financial report (CAFRA) for Fiscal Year ended June 30, 2006. The Certificate of Achievement is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting and its attainment represents a significant accomplishment by a government and its management. An award of Financial Reporting achievement has been awarded to Bob Harrison, since this government – the Finance Director is primarily responsible for preparing the award winning CAFRA. So I’d like to introduce Bob Harrison and the Mayor has the award.
Mayor: Mr. Harrison would you please come forward. Join me on the stage. We’re so proud to have an award winning Finance Director and we appreciate all you have done for the City and we appreciate the fact that you can turn lead into gold. And on behalf of the entire City I’d like to present you with this beautiful certificate on recycled paper – you know it kind of goes along with that fiscal conservatism stuff – we use it again and again. We hope you’ll proudly display that and we’ll speak of you in glowing terms and be very proud of you and also here’s something to place on your wall to remind not only us but you of just how good a job you do and how wonderful you are. So thank you Mr. Harrison, proud to have you.
Mr. Harrison: Thank you very much Mr. Mayor on behalf of the entire Finance Department who works together to make this happen, we thank you very much. The standards for this unfortunately change every year and get higher and more complex, but we’re really proud of Simpsonville and glad to be able to reflect ourselves as positively financially as you do politically.
Mayor: Thank you – go forth and save money. Please don’t let my levity diminish the seriousness of the moment. We certainly do appreciate everything you do Bob. Thank you and congratulations on that award.
• Logo & Positioning Results – Mayor: All right, Mr. Hawes I think you have a guest tonight who’s going to levitate us and position us. What does that say – no logo and position us. Or something.
Mr. Hawes: I’d be impressed if he levitated us. We’ll work on that.
Mayor: I’ll turn that over to you.
Mr. Hawes: All right, Yes Mayor and Council, about 4-5 months ago City Council decided to employ the Harrison Con firm to identify a marketing strategy and positioning for the City of Simpsonville, which involves creation of a new logo, new catch phrase if you will. But also the involvement of citizens of the City regarding their perception of what Simpsonville is to them and what Simpsonville can be and what it means to live here and what can – what really embodies what Simpsonville is. So one of the things that Mike Harrison got to the bottom of was exactly how people shape their thoughts about the City and what we could do to better position and market with regard to all those perceptions. So with that I’ll let Mike Harrison present to council what he found.
Mayor: You need to use the microphone or somebody will chase you down. She needs to hear you – she needs to record you so she can do the minutes – that’s what this is all about.
Mr. Harrison: That’s fine. Before I get started on this let me tell you real quickly how we came to meet you. Because I think there’s a lot of relevance in that. It was on I think a September morning, and I was taking my 10 year old son from our neighborhood, over near Five Forks to Heritage Park , for a baseball tournament. He’s also a travel ball player. And he has a proud father and mom. And it was one of those mornings when I was coming down Scuffletown and it was a morning not unlike any that we’ve had recently. Beautiful sun, low humidity, crystal clear morning. We may have had the first game of the day, I’m not even sure, but it was just – it was probably about 8:15 as we were rumbling through Simpsonville. And I confess I hadn’t been through Simpsonville in a moment like that in a long time. Where we weren’t late – we weren’t early – I’m never early – but we weren’t late – but it was the kind of thing that we could stop and just enjoy the intersections and the roads that led us into town and stop there on Main Street . Now mind you I had never been to Heritage Park and I had been told it was something that I really had to see as a baseball dad. So, we’re stopped at the light, we make a left turn – we go to Heritage Park and I didn’t – and I thought I had gone from Greenville/Simpsonville to some other community – to Minneapolis or some place that was well outside of this area. What people had tried to tell me about Heritage Park , really couldn’t begin to reflect what a beautiful facility it is. It’s wonderful for the ball players, it’s fantastic for the spectators and it’s great for 7 year old Kate who does not want to watch 6 innings of baseball. That whole trip down town and out to the park really had an impact on me and the first thing I did after our ball games was to come back and log onto the web site and when I got to the web site I was both excited and disappointed. I was disappointed because I felt like the site really didn’t reflect what I – this little odyssey that I had had that morning – it didn’t reflect what I felt Simpsonville was all about. Now I’m a guy – I’m in my 50’s – when I was in my 20’s we used to come and practice – I played on one of the few amateur soccer teams in Simpsonville. We practiced at what is now the old mill and the baseball stadium, and at that point it was just kind of a dormant field. And we would come to Simpsonville and we would practice, and our team was even the Simpsonville Soccer Club. But years had passed since that experience. And so what I as a person that’s been a long-time resident of Greenville, I think that that Saturday helped me to kind of get back in touch with what Simpsonville was all about, what was going on here. And when I looked at the web site I was disappointed that it doesn’t do a better job of reflecting the true guts of the City, but also felt like maybe there’s opportunity here, because we sure would love to have the opportunity to go to work on your behalf for the City.
So, like Russ said, we framed the project with Bob and Russ and a few others here. We talked about what we wanted to try to achieve with this branding process and we felt very strongly that our vision and your vision of Simpsonville had to be more than what my vision of Simpsonville was. That really to understand the City we needed to talk to the people that make the City move. And so what we did with this project is we actually talked to – had two focus groups. We convened them at Barefoot Annie’s right in the middle of town. And we had people that work up and down Main Street, and do business on Main Street, because we felt like if you went out to other parts of the City, while I’m sure that people at Neely Farms would have a great feeling about Simpsonville, or maybe not, that it’s the people that live and work and walk the streets of downtown that are really in touch with what makes Simpsonville Simpsonville. After all, the neighborhoods on the outskirts of town, they’re really nice, but there’s not a lot that differentiates them from other parts of the City. But what’s truly different and unique about Simpsonville is right here down town. So we wanted to talk to people who had been here for a number of years, who appreciate the city and work here and begin to understand what is it that makes this City unique. What makes Simpsonville Simpsonville. And we had wonderful discussions. Both sessions lasted for about an hour and a half. And if you haven’t seen them they’re all – everything that I’m telling you, except the story of Sam’s baseball games, is documented in these three reports that you either have or will soon have. So, you don’t have to make notes or anything. The full results of that meeting are summarized in the booklet. But let me if I can go through just some high points of this and I’ll take you quickly through from start to finish – from where we started and where we went to.
Now this may take just a moment. It’ll be just my luck – this was working optimally just a moment ago. So let me –
Mayor: Russ can you turn that wall sconce off right there next to the screen. Does it have a button on it.
Mr. Harrison: I notice the power just went off on the machine so it’ll take just a moment for it to find itself. I recently got my son a WII game for his birthday and it was 10 or 11 at night we’re trying to set this thing up and my son realized that the power wasn’t on.
All right, we’re up and running and I hope most of you can see. But if you can’t feel free to nestle up close.
Mayor: Yeah, you folks want to move closer to the front so you can see this. Aw come on don’t be bashful.
Mr. Harrison: Let me start off with what we believe the purpose of this is. And at the end this is the litmus test that you would want to hold this up to and say have we done a good job. What I feel our purpose is is to reflect the values, character, landscape, energy of Simpsonville to reflect it and to brand it. Good branding has to be authentic. He has to reflect what is already there. When our company goes and we talk to a business we tell them we’re not here to create your brand – your brand is already there. Our job is to go find it in some cases, to reveal it, to polish it, to put it on a pedestal so everybody has a piece of that brand. A feeling of what that brand is all about. Your brand is already here, so our job is to reflect it and then set about this process of branding it. So, I’m not responsible for the brand – this brand started – was – the origins of the brand go back to 1901 and I presume even beyond that. Why do we want to do this. First, everything that we do has to be done with a sense that we are – we want to communicate to the people and the businesses that are here and to the people and the businesses that we would like to come here. So the first thing is to strengthen the sense of community that is already here and then to inspire our own people to reach beyond. In other words if you don’t live down town, if you don’t get down town, if you don’t understand why the City is doing a streetscape project, if you’re just not in touch with it what we want you to do is get inspired and engaged and be part of the community. Not just sit back and let the City kind of do what it’s going to do.
The second half of that as I intimated is to attract new residents and corporate citizens that want to contribute and share in this vision. In this momentum, this City, this brand that is Simpsonville. Now, when you get to branding the great thing about being in branding is that I’m a pretty – I’m not a real smart guy – so the hardest thing that I have to do is try to understand a lot of different facts, figure out the ones that are relevant, figure out the ones that matter, and then project that in terms of these bits and pieces of what makes a brand a brand. So in doing that you have to prioritize and whittle away the things that are less important. And in your case the things that may not make you different from Mauldin or Greer or Travelers Rest. But find the things that make you Simpsonville. Now if you remember Tom Peters from years ago in search of excellence. Recently – a couple of years ago he put out a great book and one of the things that really stuck out to me was that real branding clarifies one great thing. Let’s go find out what that thing is.
As I mentioned we did these focus groups and we called them benefit testing. And the idea behind benefit testing is this…we try to find out the benefit that appeals most to the people that will take part or interact with the City. Not just the feature, but what is it about the City that people really feel compelled to talk about – that people feel a part of. So, when we did this we observed about 12 different possible benefits of Simpsonville and these – they’re summarized in your booklet but they range from great events like Freedom Weekend Aloft – wonderful recreational facilities – like Heritage Park ; the ambience of down town; wonderful schools; a sense of community; a family/friendly community. We went on and on and we came up with about 12. And then we asked these focus group panels to talk about or react to them and tell us which ones they felt were most important. The one thing that they said above all that was most important to them was this. We showed them this picture and let me read what’s below it: “What we love about Simpsonville is the small town feel. When you’re down town there’s just a sense that you’ve gone back to a kinder gentler time. It’s like being in a Rockwell Painting. In reality Simpsonville isn’t a small town, it’s just got the best part of one, the feel.” Now every person that saw that rated that highest among all the benefits, among all the attributes. The next thing, and you’ll pardon, this is a bad picture that we took, but I think you get the idea, below it are these words: “Drive down Simpsonville’s Main Street and it looks like the perfect small town. Drive down Interstate 385 and you’ll see modern high-tech plants. Our neighbors come from all over the country and bring different perspectives to the area. To me that’s the sign of a healthy City. There’s great opportunity here and a great lifestyle that goes with it.” Again, very very high rating. And then finally this: “I love the way Simpsonville seems to care for its traditions, like the old Woodside Mill. A lot of cities would just demolish old buildings like that but Simpsonville takes a stand to preserve it’s heritage and show case a little of the town’s history. There’s a unique balance of old and new in Simpsonville. That’s why I’m glad we live here.”
So these three benefits really seem to speak to the people that we talked to and they felt like all of the benefits that we talked about were important – all of them were relevant- but these are the things that separate you from Mauldin. Or you from Five Forks or Greer. So in looking at this we went back to your positioning statement which reads like this: “Simpsonville will be a community that manages growth while preserving a small town feel, provides an enhanced quality of life for all citizens and a clean safe and hospitable environment.” Absolutely right on. That’s great, because we’re in the creative community we obviously have to take everything that you write and re-write it so that we like it. And so we did that and we said to us the positioning line really if you were to condense it – to us it kind of says Simpsonville is that perfect American town from your past. When you walk these streets – when you are in Simpsonville, no matter what your age, it feels like you’ve gone back in time. Things are slowed down, there’s a gentle ambience to the community. It’s a wonderful feel. And then, as if that’s not enough, it’s surrounded by this dynamic hospitable southern city that’s got so much to offer. The shopping, the restaurants, the wonderful neighborhoods. Simpsonville truly has a great quality of life and we think particularly compared to other cities around the Upstate.
So, we then tried to take that line and condense it even further to a few words that seemed to sum up what we were trying to get at. The most important thing in looking at all of this attributes study is two words – Character and Community. Character – Character is the part about 1901. Character is the part about the mill village. Character is the part about the railroad tracks that goes through the middle of the town. And the train and when it passes by like Crystal at Provident Community Bank next door in one of the focus groups she said she was talking to a person about a loan and it was a long distance call – remember the day when long distance calls were a big deal. Wow was it long distance – yeah – and any way the guy on the phone said whoa whoa stop what is that and she said aw that’s the train. And he goes you have a train that goes through the middle of your City. And she goes yeah. And he goes wow that’s the neatest thing. Sometimes you don’t realize how cool it is right? But that’s the character part. As I say those are the things that have been around here for generations and generations and generations. And to not understand the roll that character has in understanding Simpsonville and projecting the values of Simpsonville is to miss the point. The other part of that is Community. Now community in our business, and maybe in your business, that’s a big term these days. Everybody wants a community. Gosh you go into Starbucks and you’re part of their community. You go to a restaurant and you’re in their community. If you go to a web site you’re part of that community. So, but to us this is a capital C Community. This is a community that lives and breaths and functions every day – warts and all. Good news, bad news. Stop signs, no stop signs. Games that begin at 9:00 and games that shouldn’t start – we have a problem with that to. So, when we think about it the roll of the City is – at least as you guys under your leadership have tried to frame this is to protect the character as opposed to tear it down and replace it. It’s to protect the Character and perfect this notion, this concept of community.
And so, when you look at this it’s not a tag line. What is a tag line – a tag line is I’m loving it. We don’t have the responsibility with this tag line of trying to come up with something that people are just going to remember. Because after all, people aren’t going to go order a Simpsonville. You can’t buy it at the fast food store, you can’t go to the mall, you can’t get it at Target. You can’t order Simpsonville. It’s not that – it’s not a commodity. So when we look at these four words, the idea here is not to think of it as a slogan – not to think of it as a tag line – but to think of it more as a theme. So that when you see it you may – it may take you a few times to remember it – but when you see it you begin to understand it. And the neat thing about it is – I mean after all once you’ve read or heard I’m lovin it. You kind of get it. But this line works at you – it naws at you, it gives you chill bumps on your best day and it makes you realize how far you have to go on your worst day. But it communicates with you. It engages you. It’s provocative. It makes you think. It asks you in. It asks you to be part of the protection and the perfection. It asks you to look around and notice what we are doing as a City to create this sense of Character or to protect this sense of Character and to create this sense of community. So, to us, if you go from the benefit testing and what we heard about the ambience of down town, about the character and the community that is here – these four words to us nail it. They set the bar and they raise the bar and I think that’s what you want in a theme line that will go with and dovetail with your logo.
So, we tested this line. We started testing early concepts way way back and although there were other lines that people said oh I love that that the people that really thought about it looked at this line and said man that’s different. That’s cool. That’s really what Simpsonville’s all about. Now from there we went through a long road trying to find the logo that is Simpsonville. And on the board here are some very early possibilities and when we went back to the focus group everybody in the focus group said some of these are really neat and some of them really stink. But they said what’s missing here is something that really is unique to Simpsonville. That these logos feel good but they also feel generic. When you look at them they’re pleasing to the eye many of them but they don’t really define what Simpsonville is. So we went from there and said aha! Boy we’ve got a great idea. And we came back to the second focus group and presented these two logos as possibilities. And they looked at them and said now you’re on to something. Boy this is going in the right direction. But we all know that’s a pretty cumbersome logo to try to work with – four color art and that type of thing. It’s a neat idea but does it really work as a logo. I’d love to have the T-shirt, but I’m not sure it works great as a logo yet. But we knew we were on to something. So we worked and we showed these to Russ and we said you know there’s something going on here that if you look at the Clock Tower and you look at the buildings, and you look at the railroad track there’s some common – there’s some images here that are beginning to stick out and say and speak to the fact the things that are truly different about Simpsonville.
And so that led us down a road that led us to this. We looked at 4 well-known icons. The clock tower, first of all, I mean because it probably is the most well-known icon of Simpsonville, the street lamp – which is becoming Simpsonville’s new icon that is here and also connects all the principal arteries and all the new wonderful neighborhoods with the down town area. The lamp post sort of that symbol of light, which certainly in a religious context has wonderful meaning to us. It has a feeling of hospitality. The water tower we love because it feels so American. It’s rich, small town America . It’s Friday Night Lights. But it’s also unique to Simpsonville. And it traces the City’s heritage back to its textile roots. It’s roots as a manufacturing town. And then finally, to try to also get at a sense of the down town ambience was to kind of frame 2-3 buildings that connect and create that unique feel that we have down town. So that those 4 icons as linked together by the clouds kind of create this mood of Simpsonville past, Simpsonville present and Simpsonville future.
I want to read you one thing real quick. It’s my favorite thing in all these booklets. “To residents of the City these landmarks are now seen and celebrated in a different light. Each is transformed from a random object to a folk icon and a source of price. To the outside world they represent an authentic panorama of a classic American town. Humble and soft-spoken, pure and simple. They comfort us and call us home. This to us with the theme line below – Character Protected – Community Perfected, is what Simpsonville was, what Simpsonville is and where Simpsonville is going as a community. If you look at – we can talk forever about theme – and design and so forth. To me I love the color pallet – it’s rich and American in its flavor. It has, if you look closely at it, it has a seasonal aspect to it with spring, summer, winter and fall. Each of the icons creates a sense of verticality. You’re looking up to the lamppost, up to the clock tower, we look up to the water tower, we look up to the buildings that are on Main Street . So it has almost a sense of kind of child-like wonder as we look up to these things. While the icons themselves have a feeling that takes you back the type face that we chose for Simpsonville is one that is classic, it will never go out of style. It feels true to the past, it feels in touch with the future. And it sets I think a beautiful pallet to take further into Character Protected – Community Perfected – and creates the brand that we think is what Simpsonville is all about.
Now in your booklets there’s some applications – you can see what it looks like on a business card. You can see how it might set up for a banner, that type of thing. Each of these icons can be used singularly within a banner. Each of these icons could be used as major sections of your web site. For instance if you wanted to do a section of the web site on history you could easily go back to the water tower and talk about the history of Simpsonville. If you wanted to talk about Recreation you could take the same style of the logo or these icons and create other icons that would just fit right in. One of our earlier ones actually had a balloon – a hot air balloon in it. And when we talked to Russ we all loved the idea but we can’t guarantee that Freedom Weekend Aloft is going to be here forever – as wonderful as it was and as great as its going to be it may not be here in 10 years. So we didn’t want to anchor your logo to something that might be dated sometime down the road. But indeed there’s so many icons that look – that can be captured in that one dimensional artwork and really communicate that particular aspect of the City.
So that’s where we are and we await your questions, critique, approval and the next step of course is to fine tune it to give you all the art work. To show you how the logo would set up in various applications. Basically give you the opportunity to go and do what you want to with it. With certain graphic standards that we would recommend in terms of how to care for it and how to project and present it. But that’s the end of that much too long presentation. But I’d love to answer any questions that you might have.
Mayor: We have a long history here of always being in a hurry and wanting to have short meetings unless somebody is saying wonderful things about us and we’ll sit and listen for hours so – you’ve done a great job. And what a great job you’ve done with this. You did not mention one thing that really gave me goose bumps when I looked at this presentation and that is page 4 of the last little booklet that you gave us wherein we are compared with our sister cities in Greenville County . My question to you is since we were clearly outstanding, was this – were these comments a result of your focus groups or is this some sort of independent surveying that you did.
Mr. Harrison: Not the result of the focus groups. They were a survey of people that we associate with professional people in the Upstate. We did not – it’s not a random sampling of 400 people. It’s good to see you all again. It’s more of having about 20 people give us input – people who would go to a Travelers Rest or go to a Ft. Inn or go to a Mauldin and compare the attributes of Simpsonville with these other cities. I think they’re on target.
Mayor: Well of course I do to and that’s why I was so – that’s why I had the goose bumps when I saw this. For those of you out there who are not seeing this I mean when we were ranked against other cities, including some outside of Greenville County – Laurens and Easley, we were very good to excellent in every category whereas most of the others weren’t. And that just gives me a great feeling about our City. I wanted to get that out since you didn’t mention it I wanted to – I wish we had a bigger crowd so we could say here see this. We should make copies of this and pass out to everybody. Yes may we put that on our web site.
Mr. Harrison: Absolutely, certainly.
Mayor: All right, well I just had to say that. But does anyone have any questions about what we’ve seen here tonight or comments.
Mr. Zitriki: I think it’s very good.
Mayor: Okay Ms. Lawrence
Ms. Lawrence: I think this looks great – it’s really good – it’s some of my more favorite colors to by the way.
Mayor: Very pleasing to the eye and it has a calming affect.
Ms. Bagwell: I actually looked at these on line. Someone had sent me an e-mail and sent me to the link and I looked at it on-line and that was what I had chosen from all of the other things that were on there. So it’s excellent. You did a good job.
Mr. Harrison: Thank you. You know, we had, and it’s outlined in the report. We had 500 people vote on that. The Tribune Times had set up a link – we had sent it out to friends and family and tried to keep it – with anything like this you can’t necessarily keep it confined to people within the Upstate or people who have a familiarity with Simpsonville. But we know intuitively that of the 500 the overwhelming majority were people that have a sense of what Simpsonville – of the flavor of Simpsonville. So I – and getting 500 responses was just incredible. And seeing that that logo among a pretty good peer group of logos how well it did and how people really tended to respond to that and to the Character Protected – Community Perfected. It made us feel really good. We had no idea that it would reach that level of 500 people voting on it. But you know I have the privilege of working with some guys in their 20’s and 30’s and when I came out of college I could write a little bit but these guys come out and they think nothing of going and programming and you know in a day some web survey and they send it out. And we started with our baseball team and our soccer team and people that we know in business and within about 5 days you’ve got 500 people voting on it. SO it was really – it was fascinating for me at my age to see how quickly and how cool this new technology is.
Mayor: Wonderful – Mr. Zitricki
Mr. Zitricki: I think it’s just amazing – taking our ideas from our brain storming sessions and the thoughts we had with our statements and making 4 words out of it. It’s very nice.
Mayor: How does everybody feel about that Character Protected – Community Perfected.
Mr. Zitricki: It sums it up.
Mayor: All right.
Mr. Harrison: Good, very good. Alrighty.
Mayor: Well gee I haven’t dealt with very many salesmen that I don’t have to negotiate with – it sounds like you’ve got the order. What’s our next step Mr. Hawes.
Mr. Hawes: Well I believe that if this is the format that we’d like to go with then we can work with Mike to provide the information on the exact color pallet and the exact specifications and get some digital renditions of it and begin to start utilizing this . We’ve got 18 police cars coming, some public works vehicles. I don’t know if it will go on the Police cars specifically but I know it will go on the Public Works vehicles. This is the type of logo that will look really nice on the side door of a car. You’ll be able to read it.
Mayor: And it will look nice on the side of a trash truck to because you’ve got some tomato stain color – you’ve got some mustard stain color- so it will sort of blend in there don’t you agree Mr. Carter.
Mr. Carter: Absolutely.
Mr. Hawes: Well we’ll get with Mike and further this process.
Mayor: Good. Well thank you Mike for a great presentation and I hope we can move forward on that. And I understand that you’re looking at some other things for us to which I’m kind of excited about. You mentioned the web site. And I agree it needs work.
• Notification of Term Expirations on Boards and Committees Mayor: Next item on the Agenda is Ms. Bodkins you’re going to notify us about something.
Ms. Bodkins: Yes sir. It’s that time of year to re-appoint Committee and Board Members. The only one that you have expirations on this year is the Planning Commission. You have 3 people that their terms are up this year: Mr. McDowell, Mr. Witkowski and Mr. Shelton (This was in error. Mr. Shelton’s term does not expire this year it is Ms. Mahaffey’s term that expires as she was completing the unexpired term of another Board member). I have placed an ad on the PEG Channel, I have sent an e-mail to Mr. Carey from the Tribune Times and he has agreed to run an article so we don’t have to run an ad to advertise for them.
Mayor: Mr. Carey. Okay.
Ms. Bodkins: And if these three gentlemen want to go back on the Planning Commission they need to resubmit applications the same as other people applying for it and we’ll take those applications up until I believe it’s the Thursday before our Workshop meeting in November and then you’ll vote in December.
Mayor: So we don’t have anybody on any other committees that are rotating off.
Ms. Bodkins: No sir. This was – next year we have several committees but this year this is the only one.
Mayor: Okay. Fine. All right so boys and girls go out and recruit your aunts and uncles or whoever you want to see on there.
Mr. Larson: Quick question. Ms. Bodkins what about Justin Chandler is he yet to resign from the BOZAC.
Ms. Bodkins: I’m sorry Mr. Larson
Mr. Larson: Does Justin Chandler need to resign from the BOZAC
Ms. Bodkins: Yes, he needs to resign from that and then we’ll have to appoint that but I haven’t received a resignation from him yet.
Mr. Larson: Could you maybe check with him on that
Mayor: That should have been the moment he took the other job he should have been
Ms. Bodkins: A resignation has been requested from him
Mayor: Well I don’t know that we need to have him submit a resignation we just need to fire him don’t we. I mean if we appointed him to something else I mean we could just say – Mr. Attorney can we – I’m not trying to be flippant – well I am trying to be flippant but still
Mr. Holmes: The position I would take is his taking office in a new position was an automatic resignation of his old position.
Mayor: That’s what I was trying to say in a funny kind of way.
Ms. Bodkins: Well then you have an opening to fill on that House of – no it’s not on Boza it’s a
Mr. Larson: Housing Review Board
Ms. Bodkins: Yes
Mayor: So we have one position on Housing Review Board. Alrighty. Thank you very much
Ms. Bodkins: You’re very welcome. EXECUTIVE SESSION • Contractual Matter – Administration • Contractual Matter – Recreation Mayor: All right we have a need for an Executive Session and I believe Mr. Zitricki wants to make a motion in that regard.
Mr. Zitricki: I’d like to make a motion that we amend the Agenda to include on the Executive Session a legal matter for Administration.
Mayor: Okay a legal matter. All right, I have a motion do I hear a second.
Ms. Lawrence: Second
Mayor: Ms. Lawrence seconds. Any discussion. All right hearing none I’ll call for the vote to amend the Agenda. All in favor signify by saying Aye (AYE) opposed No. Aye’s have it it’s unanimous. That was legal matter administration. All right so now we have an amended agenda we need to have an Executive Session to discuss a contractual matter regarding the administration; a contractual matter regarding recreation and a legal matter regarding administration. So I’ll entertain a motion in that regard. Ms. Lawrence.
Ms. Lawrence: Yes Mr. Mayor I’ll make a motion we go into Executive Session to discuss a contractual matter for administration, a legal matter administration and a contractual matter recreation.
Mayor: Thank you Ms. Lawrence do I hear a second.
Mr. Zitricki: Second
Mayor: Thank you Mr. Zitricki. Any discussion. Hearing none all in favor signify by saying Aye (AYE) opposed No. Aye’s have it it is unanimous. We are now in recess in Executive Session. Thank you all for coming if you’d like to hang around we’ll be out eventually.
ADJOURNMENT Mayor: We came out of Executive Session at 8:26 p.m. No action was taken. All right now Ms. Lawrence do you have anything you’d like to say.
Ms. Lawrence: Yes Mr. Mayor I make a motion we adjourn
Mayor: Do I hear a second
Ms. Bagwell: Second
Mayor: I thank you Ms. Bagwell the motion has been seconded. All in favor signify by saying Aye (AYE) opposed No. Aye’s have it we are adjourned.
Respectfully submitted,
PAMELA J. BODKINS City Clerk |
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