Downtown Lowdown Meeting July 20
Come find out about upcoming City projects and event updates at the next quarterly Downtown Lowdown meeting on Wednesday, July 20.
The informal meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. at Roots Bistro, 118 W. Eighth Street. Coffee and light breakfast snacks will be provided. There will be updates from City staff on:
- Art Center and Library events
- Historic Resource Survey update
- Downtown West update
- Austin Avenue Bridge update
- Proposed sidewalk and road projects in the downtown for fiscal year 2017
- Founders Park and VFW Park update
- Opportunities for local vendors to do business with the City
- Retail Strategy and Recruitment Plan update
- Table on Main and Small Business Saturday
- Downtown sales tax trends
Also, find out about new businesses in the downtown district that have opened or are under construction.
If you plan to attend, please RSVP by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, July 19 to Jackson Daly at (512) 819-3115 or at jackson.daly@georgetown.org.
Downtown Retail Workshop on June 16
A downtown workshop to focus on the commercial downtown area for the Retail Strategy and Recruitment Plan for Georgetown will be hosted by the City of Georgetown and Catalyst Commercial on June 16.
The City of Georgetown and the Georgetown Economic Development Corporation (GEDCO) have partnered with Catalyst Commercial, a leading expert in retail recruitment, marketing, and strategy to conduct a retail market analysis and create a Retail Strategy and Recruitment Plan customized for Georgetown. This project will measure the current retail environment, address the types and locations of retail outlets that will be most beneficial for the citizens and successful for businesses, and create a more diversified retail environment in our community.
The workshop on June 16 will be a venue for downtown stakeholders to share their thoughts about Georgetown’s opportunities to attract and retain retail establishments in downtown.
The event is on Thursday, June 16 from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. in the Friends Room at the Georgetown Public Library, 402 W. Eighth Street. A light breakfast will be provided.
Walk-ins are welcome. Help us prepare by RSVP to Andreina Davila-Quintero, City of Georgetown Project Coordinator, by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, June 14 at Andreina.Davila@georgetown.org or (512) 931-7686.
Georgetown on the Move: Breakfast Bites on June 8
Transportation and mobility are the focus for the next Breakfast Bites quarterly meeting on June 8. Breakfast Bites is a quarterly business development event sponsored by the Georgetown Main Street Program.
Georgetown on the Move is the theme for this meeting in which Nathaniel Waggoner, a transportation analyst for the City of Georgetown, will speak to a range of transportation topics and projects. Waggoner will discuss the Overall Transportation Plan that establishes the long-range framework for multi-modal transportation planning in the city over a 30-year horizon. That plan provided guidance for the Transportation Bond Committee and the City Council to develop of a list of 20 transportation and mobility projects that were approved by Georgetown voters last year. Two additional initiatives related to the Overall Transportation Plan include the Sidewalk Master Plan, the first phase of which was funded with $10 million from the 2015 bond election, and the fixed route bus plan, which is currently being considered by the City Council.
Waggoner also will address a growing network of on-demand transportation options, including rides provided by Faith in Action Caregivers. And finally, Waggoner will provide overviews of the Williams Drive Corridor Study and the current public outreach and assessment process related to the Austin Avenue Bridges. Questions and discussion will follow Waggoner’s presentation.
The event on Wednesday, June 8 is from 8:30 to 9:50 a.m. in the Friends Room at the Georgetown Public Library, 402 W. Eighth Street. Breakfast snacks, coffee, and drinks will be provided. Networking starts at 8 a.m.
Attendees should pre-register by contacting Shelly Hargrove, Main Street manager, by 5 p.m. on Monday, June 6 at shelly.hargrove@georgetown.org or (512) 930-2027. Main Street is a program of the City of Georgetown.
Pop-up Performances This Summer
The Georgetown Main Street Program is looking for middle and high school students with vocal or instrumental talent to perform this summer in pop-up performances on the Square. Vocal or instrumental groups are invited to sign up for unplugged performances as a pilot program on Sundays in June and July.
Sessions for these 30-minute pop-up performances would start at 1 p.m. on Sundays and end by 4:30 p.m. Locations are the Eighth Street patio by the Red Poppy Café at the Georgetown Public Library and at Founders Park at Church and Ninth streets.
This pop-up performance program is sponsored by the Georgetown Main Street Program and Georgetown ISD Fine Arts Department.
Find out more about the pop-up performance program and submit an online application mainstreet.georgetown.org/play/pop-up-performance-application.
For more information, Shelly Hargrove, manager of the Main Street Program, at mainstreet@georgetown.org.
Red Poppy Festival in Downtown Georgetown April 22 – 24
The 17th annual Red Poppy Festival on the downtown Square in Georgetown is this weekend on April 22 – 24. The biggest annual festival on the Most Beautiful Town Square in Texas starts on Friday night with three days of music, entertainment, and family fun.
Tracy Lawrence is the headliner at the Saturday night street dance and Kimberly Dunn starts the concert on Saturday night. The Friday night concert features Dysfunkshun Junkshun. There is no admission charge for the concerts or other festival activities such as the car show, parade, children’s area, or vendor booths. Bring your own chair if you are coming to listen to the music.
Other festival highlights include the Red Poppy Bike Ride on Saturday at 8 a.m., the Red Poppy 5k run on Saturday at 9 a.m., the Red Poppy Parade on Saturday at 10 a.m., and the Car Show on Saturday at 11 a.m. On Sunday, don’t miss the BMX Pros doing amazing tricks on bikes at 12:30, 2:30, and 4:30 p.m. Come to watch and participate in the One-in-the-Hole ball drop with 28,000 ping pong balls on Sunday at 2 p.m.
The Red Poppy Kid’s Fun Zone is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday. The Fun Zone includes an obstacle course, a huge slide, a bounce house, a basketball game and a toddler playground.
The Red Poppy Festival is on track to become a Zero Waste event by 2021, which means that 90 percent of the waste from the event is recycled or composted. Food vendors are using only compostable plates, dishes, drinking straws, napkins, and cutlery and recyclable cups. Look for recycling and composting eco-stations and help the festival to become Zero Waste. You can start by bringing your own reusable shopping bags from home.
Winners of the Red Poppy Taste Awards, a cooking competition featuring foods with poppy seeds will be announced on stage during the Saturday night concert.
For a full schedule and all the details, go to RedPoppyFestival.com.
The official 2016 Red Poppy Festival poster is on sale for $5 each at the Visitor Center at 103 W. Seventh Street. T-shirts are available at the festival.
Where are the poppies? For a map showing the locations of red poppies in Georgetown, stop by the Visitors Center at 103 W. Seventh Street. (Or see an online map at poppy.georgetown.org/things-to-do/red-poppy-tour.)
Street Closures
Austin Avenue closes Friday morning: Starting at 6 a.m. on Friday, April 22, Austin Avenue will be closed from Sixth to Ninth streets. Traffic will be detoured to Rock Street. (This is to allow the placement of the main festival stage.) Austin Avenue will be closed through Sunday at 11 p.m.
Other streets around the Courthouse Square will close at 6 a.m. on Friday, April 22 to allow for vendor set-up. Streets around the Square will remain closed through Sunday at 11 p.m. An expanded street closure area will be in effect on Saturday from 6 a.m. to 12 p.m. (noon) for the Red Poppy Parade. To see the parade route, go to poppy.georgetown.org/things-to-do/parade. Detailed street closure information can be found at poppy.georgetown.org/about.
Free Shuttle on Saturday
A free shuttle will run on Saturday, April 23 from 9 a.m. to midnight. The shuttle will pick up and drop off passengers at the First Baptist Church located at 1333 W. University Avenue. The drop-off location is at the corner of Austin Avenue and Ninth Street.
Event Parking
The Williamson County parking garage at Rock Street and Fourth Street and the public parking lot on Austin Avenue between Fifth and Fourth Streets (next to Monument Cafe) will be open during the festival. Public parking lots on Martin Luther King, Jr. Street at W. Eighth Street and at W. Sixth Street are also available. There is no charge for parking.
Handicap parking is available at the parking lot at 10th and Main streets.
The City parking lot at Sixth and Main streets will be closed starting at 6 a.m. on Friday, April 22.
For a full schedule and all the details, go to RedPoppyFestival.com.
Downtown Lowdown Meeting April 13
Come find out about upcoming City projects and event updates at the next quarterly Downtown Lowdown meeting on Wednesday, April 13.
The informal meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. at Roots Bistro, 118 W. Eighth Street. Coffee and light breakfast snacks will be provided. There will be updates from City staff on:
- Art Center and Library events
- Historic Resource Survey mobile workshop
- Downtown West schematic design update
- Austin Avenue Bridge update
- Founders Park and VFW Park update
- Red Poppy Festival 2016 on April 22 – 24
- Red Poppy Festival zero-waste initiative
- Downtown sales tax trends
Also, find out about new businesses in the downtown district that have opened or are under construction.
If you plan to attend, please RSVP by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 12 to Jackson Daly at (512) 819-3115 or at jackson.daly@georgetown.org.
Red Poppy Art on the Square April 4 – May 5
Attendees at Georgetown’s 2016 Red Poppy Festival on April 22 to 24 will enjoy an outdoor art installation of thousands of deep red ceramic poppies by artist Jen Rose. The poppies will blanket the north lawn of the Williamson County Courthouse in Georgetown’s downtown Square. The piece, entitled Blood of Heroes Never Dies, commemorates Texas World War I veterans and it will be on display from April 4 through May 5.
Individual poppies will be available for purchase for $10 apiece at the Visitor Center, 103 W. Seventh Street on the Square. Proceeds will benefit Puppies Behind Bars, a nonprofit organization that provides service dogs for combat veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan who have suffered a physical injury, including traumatic brain injury or post-traumatic stress disorder.
Blood of Heroes Never Dies was a collaboration between artist Jen Rose and Clive Siegle, a history faculty member; both teach at Richland College in Dallas. The original installation included 5,171 ceramic red poppies installed on the campus of Richland College for Veterans Day 2015 as reminders of the 5,171 veterans from Texas who died in World War I. The Georgetown installation will include about 4,000 poppies “planted” by volunteers.
Henry Purl Compton (nicknamed Okra) helped Georgetown to become the Red Poppy Capital of Texas when his service as a corporal in the Army during World War I ended and in 1919 poppy seeds he collected in northern France were planted in the yard of his mother’s home on Seventh Street in Georgetown.
The poppies installation on the Williamson County Courthouse lawn is on loan by the artist, Jen Rose. The display is co-sponsored by the City of Georgetown Arts and Culture, the City of Georgetown Convention and Visitors Bureau, Williamson County, and The Williamson Museum.
Breakfast Bites on Downtown March 9
What draws you to downtown Georgetown? Are there changes that could bring more visitors to the Most Beautiful Town Square in Texas? Tell us your ideas!
Come to the next quarterly Breakfast Bites on March 9 as a panel of local experts talk about ways to make our downtown district even better. There also will be time to share ideas. Breakfast Bites is a quarterly business development event by the Georgetown Main Street Program. The March 9 panel includes these key members of our downtown community.
Cari Miller is tourism manager for the Georgetown Convention and Visitors Bureau, which has won many statewide awards for marketing and events. Miller was City of Georgetown Manager of the Year in 2012 and is currently pursuing a tourism executive certification from the Travel and Tourism College.
Judy Lester, along with her husband Len, has operated The Escape Fine Crafts and Gifts on the Square for 20 years. Lester has been in retail management for more than 33 years. She has served on the boards of the Downtown Georgetown Association and the Main Street Program.
Kay Briggs is owner of Pink Poppy ARTisans Boutique and a downtown business owner since 2009. Briggs currently owns and operates two businesses in Georgetown.
Chet Garner, the panel moderator, is creator, executive producer, writer, editor, and host of The Daytripper on PBS, a Lone Star Emmy award-winning travel show. Garner also is a proud husband, father of four, Eagle Scout, monthly contributor to Texas Highways magazine, and building owner on the Square.
The event on Wednesday, March 9 is from 8:30 to 9:50 a.m. in the Friends Room at the Georgetown Public Library, 402 W. Eighth Street. Breakfast snacks, coffee, and drinks will be provided. Networking starts at 8 a.m.
Attendees should pre-register by contacting Shelly Hargrove, Main Street manager, by 5 p.m. on Monday, March 7 at shelly.hargrove@georgetown.org or (512) 930-2027. Main Street is a program of the City of Georgetown Downtown and Community Services Department.
Georgetown Main Street Program Commended
Georgetown was recently commended by the Texas Historical Commission for successful annual progress as a designated Main Street community, one of 58 in Texas to be recognized this year. Cities were recognized at the winter meeting on February 10 of the Texas Main Street Program, which is a program of the Texas Historical Commission.
As part of the Texas Main Street Program, local Main Street programs focus on responsibly utilizing a community’s historic assets for economic benefit and to increase quality of life. Main Street programs in Texas are staffed, but rely on community volunteers to carry out the program.
The Georgetown Main Street Program is accredited by meeting performance benchmarks in planning, partnerships, staffing, volunteer effort, preservation ethic, training, and program assessment through reporting.
Georgetown Main Street Program activities in 2015 included providing $34,000 in façade and sign reimbursement grants to 12 downtown businesses, sponsoring the Ladies Nite Out and Georgetown Swirl events, and the annual collectible Christmas ornament sale.
For more information about the Georgetown Main Street Program, go to mainstreet.georgetown.org. For more information on the Texas Historical Commission’s Main Street program, visit www.thc.state.tx.us.
Downtown West Project Open House on January 20
An open house meeting on the Downtown West project will be held from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, January 20. The meeting is in the conference room at the Planning Department in the historic Light and Waterworks Building, 406 W. Eighth Street. (The Planning Department entrance is on the east side of the former power plant building, shown at right.)
Information on a parking study, traffic impact analysis, and programming plan for project will be available at the open house. The parking study estimates future parking needs for the project. The traffic impact analysis projects traffic volumes for streets near the project once it is complete. The programming plan provides a general layout for the space needs of City departments that would move into the three buildings in the project.
Downtown West involves the renovation of three existing City buildings. The first phase of the project includes improvements to the vacant 1987 former public library building at 808 Martin Luther King, Jr. Street to become City Hall, and renovations to the Communication and Technology Building at 510 W. Ninth Street to become the Municipal Court and City Council Chambers building.
Construction on renovations to the buildings at 808 MLK, Jr. Street (pictured at right) and 510 W. Ninth Street is expected to begin this fall. A new parking lot with 144 spaces between Eighth and Seventh streets on MLK, Jr. Street recently opened.
A later phase of the project involves programming and design concepts for the historic Light and Waterworks Building and a proposed green space between Eighth and Ninth Streets.
The Planning, Economic Development, Public Communications, Main Street, and Housing departments moved into the historic Light and Waterworks Building late last year. Long-term plans for the Light and Waterworks Building are being addressed in the programming plan for Downtown West.
For more information about the Downtown West project, contact Jackson Daly at (512) 819-3115 or jackson.daly@georgetown.org.
