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Main Street and placement/removal of signage and traffic circulation measures <br /> ($27,000), Parks Division staff time for garbage removal ($5,000) and trash/dump truck <br /> fees ($2,000); these costs are included in the fiscal year budget of the Operations <br /> Services Department. Additionally, the City incurs costs for police and traffic <br /> engineering staffing, downtown cleaning, and event oversight that are absorbed into <br /> ongoing departmental operations. <br /> BACKGROUND <br /> The City introduced the Weekend on Main street closures program in 2020, with support <br /> from PDA, to provide outdoor space for downtown merchants to expand their operations <br /> while indoor operations were restricted due to County and State health orders, and to <br /> draw people downtown in an expanded pedestrian environment that provided more <br /> space for gathering while maintaining social distancing. The program involved closure of <br /> Main Street to vehicular traffic every weekend, Friday evening through Sunday evening, <br /> from mid-June through the end of October. The street closures extended almost the full <br /> length of Main Street, as this allowed merchants which had previously been excluded <br /> from street closure events to participate. During the closure period, businesses could <br /> expand dining and other outdoor activities into the street, and pedestrians could stroll <br /> and circulate in this area as well. This initial Weekend on Main season was well <br /> received by the community and helped to bring much-needed activity into the downtown <br /> during the pandemic. <br /> In 2021, after considering the collective responses to a member survey and the <br /> continued response to COVID, the PDA requested that year's Weekend on Main street <br /> closures take place every weekend between April 30 and Labor Day on September 6, <br /> 2021. This timing was intentional in allowing restaurants to utilize the street during the <br /> spring and summer months when outdoor dining is at its peak, and then allowing the <br /> retailers to take full advantage of the fall months leading into the holiday season. <br /> In consideration for the 2022 season and future years, at its August 17, 2021, meeting, <br /> the City Council discussed the Weekend on Main closures and directed staff to <br /> collaborate with the PDA to develop a program framework that balanced the varied <br /> interests of downtown merchants as well as those of the community. City and PDA staff <br /> solicited input from a range of stakeholders, as well as an advisory group comprised of <br /> a downtown retailer, downtown restaurateur, downtown service business, downtown <br /> area resident and non-downtown resident. Based on that effort coupled with Council <br /> direction, in 2022 the renamed First Weekends on Main were scheduled for the first <br /> weekend (Friday late afternoon through Sunday evening) of each month from May <br /> through December as part of PDA's annual downtown events schedule. To bring <br /> additional benefit to downtown merchants and the community, each of the monthly <br /> weekend closures offered activity/programming during the day on Saturday. <br /> DISCUSSION <br /> The 2022 First Weekends on Main was included in the PDA's events schedule along <br /> with the return of other popular downtown events. The revised county health order, <br /> which lifted the mask mandate earlier in the year, provided the PDA the opportunity to <br /> Page 2 of 6 <br />