Inaugural Advancing Argyle Meeting Notes 2025-02-19

Inaugural Advancing Argyle Meeting - February 19, 2025 Event Setup Joe printed questions on sticky notes with a lined section for people to take notes. Community Building room set up to accommodate for 30+ people to sit. Water, soda, chips, sandwiches, and cookies purchased for attendees. 5:30PM - Networking and Refreshments Around 45~ people arrived before 6:30PM. Had to bring in more chairs than what was originally set up from the kitchen. Sign-ins were done on the iPads and Mallory’s phone for older people / overflow of people signing in at once. 6:30PM - Beginning the Meeting Kate’s - SWWI Regional Planning Commission Help communities be more successful Also works at the SBDC - Example: Gays Mills building a pavillion w/ grant Give everyone a chance to introduce themselves as the post-it sorting group began sorting. The sorting took a while - started one sheet that was done first. 1. How can we better support Argyle Businesses? Parking was a big thing. Angled parking is suggested. The “vacant” lot was suggested - Keith and Tina’s daycare was brought up that it will be built and the Village will own the parking lot. The Open Market will be there in the future. Market moving downtown was mentioned to the meeting group. Advertising/Social Media/Marketing Maybe some signage on the outsides of the town for local businesses. Cooperative advertising. Bucky Book type thing suggested. Social media was mentioned many times as well. Facebook page - promotions on the Activities Argyle page Hidden Valley was suggested with the advertisements Advertisement sheet insert in the newspaper was suggested by Joe as a way to get some more ads in at a better cost. If people bought in, ads could be put into other newspapers around the area other than the Pec Valley Leader. Newspaper ads should go in earlier - at least a week or two before it happens. Summer calendar was suggested by Bill to have in the papers. Jason Dammen mentioned that online posting has a better reach for himself - Facebook, Snapchat, Radio ads. WEKZ 60 second ads or 30 second intervals. Support businesses here in Argyle - Community Business Map - Shop Local Promote and respect other businesses. Maybe an event for businesses where you open your business and show people how things work, learn about local businesses, showcase what we do. Tours during Fish Fry or big events. First Fridays - Thursday late nights open etc for people who work late Local Business Map would be an easy thing to make - businesses can hand out the map to people who stop in or have them accessible. Gas station, Yellowstone Lake, Dairy Bar, Shag and Wag etc. Airbnbs around here would be another good place to put them in. Ø Mallory will work on creating a Local Business Map / Village of Argyle Map Ads or signage suggested down by Yellowstone and other places that bring people into the community Bill’s drone video would be great on the site - replacing the photo of Argyle - Example: Blanchardville’s website has a neat video on their home page showcasing their town. Music on the square, wine walk. Tastings, Old Fashioned tasting event. Christmas parade, Christmas caroling, more holiday Argyle Alumni maybe could get more people involved with their page Kevin suggested Big Days again - weekend events, water fights, kids games, etc. Develop the river area more - Sandra had ideas previously 2. What is one thing Argyle needs most? Parking, parking, parking. Sandra mentioned angled parking possibly on one side of the road where the daycare is at. Daycare was brought up. Playground equipment - ADA inclusive. Joe suggested fundraising for playground equipment. Put some places to stay around Argyle on the website. Updated Smart Growth plan - Board is already looking into this. Required for most grants - by law. Senior or acordable housing. Car wash was suggested by multiple people. Grocery - no fresh foods needed. Kingfisher Farms would be a good idea to promote - they do Thursday pickups. New Library - our library is limited and small - no room for more growth. Bigger library could be an economic driver as well. Fully accessible meeting space - with a new library, they could have an accessible space. Business collabs - bring more people to town - work together 3. What is your vision for Argyle in 3 years? No vacant buildings, busy downtown, vibrant business district, more businesses open, more businesses in general. Brian and Janelle Ritschard - bought the grocery store - looking to have rental space inside the building and have small businesses in. **** The wool woman who stopped into the o8ice might be a great person to rent from them! Ø Mallory called / texted Janelle about it after talking to her after the meeting. Make Argyle a destination spot - inclusive and welcoming events. Make people want to come to Argyle. Kids stuc at events. Make Argyle a destination spot. Government - expand the Village limits. More signage - mural on the Central 52 building again. • This would be an amazing spot to put a huge Argyle mural like Blanchardville has in their downtown. People could take photos and share them there. Internet suggested - BEAD funding was mentioned. Verizon 5G was suggested. 4. How can we improve or add events to benefit the community? Street Dance was suggested a lot - Fire Department used to do one. Homecoming has had them before. Big Days - Festivals - Argyle Days A dance at the Shelter House when it opens? Goodfellas or Sportz Page sponsor or have bartenders work and sell beer or drinks to benefit organizations or businesses etc. Fish Fry - Maximize this event and keep people in Argyle earlier and later. Get people to get into the businesses that are downtown. Things for kids to do during these events. Dunk tank, face painting. Dan wants to do an open house, we could do a Village event at this time as well. Ball tournament or slow-pitch tournament - Kevin Slater would be a good person to help out with this and had the idea for kickball tournament Fireworks, local art shows *** Mom’s friend Cindy is going to have a local art show in Darlington. *** Thanksgiving or Christmas free meals. Non-driver rides. Takeaways - How can we make this happen? Volunteers for certain tasks/Committees- Playground- Kayla Nicola Sandra Platteville contact - Kate Tom Moore said that Jerry Gerber wants to have a shelter house event - we have talked to Jerry already about this. Kevin Slater is interested in the possibility of doing a kickball tournament during this time. Park Event- Julie Stevenson Library- Daycare- Downtown- Lynn and Garry Rossing Brian and Janelle Ritschard Sandra Flannery Keith Ritschards Kate Housing- Plan Commission Smart Growth Plan Committee of Organizations- Nothing exists that has everyone meeting all together. Lions Club, Booster Club, all meet at dicerent times. Maybe have a representative meet together to work together. Joe will email everyone to get people together as a follow-up. Monica suggested Advancing Argyle agenda - have someone from each group come to represent and speak about their upcoming events / help support each other. Volunteers? How do we get more people involved? People who want to get the word out- Neale Tollakson Lynn Rossing Nicole Zimmerman Janelle Ritschards Tina Ritschards Julie Stevenson Trisha Ostby Mallory McGurie Jason Dammen Street Dance- Food, music, etc. Jason already pays for music out and food, but could we do maybe in someone else’s area? Ø Mallory suggestion: A dance held in the Shelter House? Power in there already, the new floor would be a lot safer than some of the streets / curbs etc for people dancing on. Fish Fry- Nicole Meeting End Quarterly meeting - May next meeting possible. Move to dicerent places around town for future meetings - suggestion of hosting it? Shelter house for next meeting? 8:26PM meeting end. Introductions & Attendees 1. Nicole Dammen 2. Jason Dammen 3. Rita Stanton 4. Keith and Tina 5. Brent Ritschard 6. Wyatt Webster 7. Julie Stevenson 8. Kris 9. Jim Hanson 10. Tricia Ostby 11. Evelyn Ostby 12. Bill O’Donnell 13. Garry Rossing 14. Neale Tollakson 15. Brian Ritshcard 16. Janelle Ritchard 17. Gunner Gerber 18. Heather Christopher 19. Dan Christopher 20. Steve Engles 21. Tina Gerber 22. CJ Leigh 23. John Leigh 24. Sean Rickelman 25. Tabatha Rickleman 26. Susan Munoz 27. Anndre Dove 28. Melissa Greunberg 29. Kevin Greunberg 30. Dave Soper 31. Wendy Canon 32. Shirley Canon 33. Karen Johnson 34. Susan Williams 35. Monica Hodgeson 36. Lynn Rossing 37. Christie Oconnor 38. Tom Moore 39. Maryellen Rear 40. Kayla Nicola 41. Lisa Johnson 42. Becky - Farmers Daughter 43. Michelle Hauser 44. Michelle Harrigan 45. Sarah Gallager 46. Mallory 47. Sandra 48. Sam 49. Nick 50. Kate 51. Kayla Barnes