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BID plans food‑truck Fridays, Art Walk and holiday events within $10,000 budget; members seek sponsors
Summary
The BID recommended a slate of staple events for fiscal 25‑26 — four food‑truck Fridays, an Art Walk, Small Business Saturday and a Christmas event — and discussed partnering with the Chamber, school district and local sponsors to stretch a staff‑reported $10,000 event budget.
The Downtown BID advisory board outlined a proposed slate of staple events for fiscal year 25‑26 and discussed partnerships and funding strategies to make the events sustainable within the current budget.
Staff reported the event line in the BID budget is $10,000. “The budget for events is $10,000. And so I think we estimated thousand, $2,000 per event depending on how much sponsorship we got,” a staff member said.
Board members and Chamber representatives proposed a calendar that would include four food‑truck Fridays, an Art Walk, Small Business Saturday (the Saturday after Black Friday) and a Christmas event, with additional collaboration on one‑off festivals such as Pepe Marquez. Jose from the Chamber described a joint Halloween/trunk‑or‑treat concept at the park as a safety‑focused alternative to downtown trick‑or‑treating: “We did discuss about its safety, and, a lot of members are as kids' safety is it's in the downtown area running around and cars and this and that. It's gonna be a not good idea. The park is is is we think is safe and kids could get their, you know, face painted and all that stuff,” Jose said.
Members debated how to position the events to bring foot traffic into multiple downtown streets rather than only High Street. One board member urged rotating locations and working with business owners to ensure participation: “We should get enough people to where we expand to different places,” a member said.
Budget and cost tradeoffs featured heavily. The board discussed using DJs in some events as a lower‑cost alternative to a full band (bands were estimated at roughly $2,000); charging vendor fees to reduce no‑show rates; and seeking sponsorships to offset band and production costs. A board member recommended using social media and a short promotional video to increase attendance and business participation.
On incentives, members proposed a decorated‑trunk contest, vendor fees and awards to encourage business participation. Staff recommended compiling a calendar of proposed events and assigning board members to secure sponsorships and act as event leads.
Why it matters: The event schedule and budget determine how the BID allocates limited funds to marketing and activation that aim to increase downtown foot traffic for member businesses.
Next steps: Staff will assemble a calendar of BID and community events and bring a refined budget and sponsorship targets to the next meeting. Board members were asked to send event ideas to staff (not to the full board, to avoid Brown Act violation).
