The Turlock Downtown Property Owners Association is back into the swing of things post-COVID as was highlighted in the organization’s annual report to the Turlock City Council on Tuesday.
The report touted the expanded events the downtown association hosted over the past year, along with new partnerships that help keep the area clean and new programs with the downtown’s two Saturday markets.
“One of the big things we try to do for the downtown core is to promote all the events, the sense of the community, be the heart of the community,” said TDPOA Executive Director Travis Regalo.
“A lot of events were greatly expanded this year.”
This year’s 4th of July celebration spanned over two days. The first-ever night parade and drone show on June 28, was followed by a daytime car show and vendor fair on June 29.
“We got a lot of mixed emotions on the parade being on a different day, but overall the community seemed to appreciate it,” said Regalo.
This was the first year the TDPOA has partnered with the Helping Hands Ministry to implement the Clean and Safe program.
“They allow us to keep our downtown core clean in means above and beyond what our maintenance team can do,” said Regalo.
The ministry coordinates people to clean up the streets of the downtown core five days a week, while also providing homeless outreach.
“The businesses now have a call line for outreach, on top of what the police department does. Liz (Padilla of Helping Hands Ministry) will actually show up a lot of times so we don’t have to burden the police department for simple things. She will mediate or bring in county services…Liz is able to handle our homeless community more delicately than any of us so she’s a great asset,” said Regalo.
Regalo said that the TDPOA and the City of Turlock were able to coordinate a number of landscape and maintenance projects over the past year that saved both entities money.
Along with continuing partnerships with the Turlock Garden Club for the upkeep of downtown planters and the banner pole program, which gives local organizations a medium to promote their efforts, Regalo also talked about how the two Saturday markets are a boom for all businesses downtown.
“It’s a beautiful sight. The community is walking from one end of Main Street to the other end of Main Street, seeing both markets and I think the businesses greatly appreciate it and they love seeing the amount of people that come through their doors. It’s been an economic boost having both markets,” he said.
Regalo said that TDPOA is working on a new program that will help market vendors that grow into a need for a brick-and-mortar location find businesses that have space available.
As a Property and Business Improvement District (PBID), the TDPOA collects an assessment on the properties in the designated downtown area and then uses the funds for landscape and maintenance projects, security and economic development.
The TDPOA has a Board of Directors made up of Danny Mann (president), Dan Tallman (treasurer), Harold Bocher, Jeff Chapman, Alta Fernandes, Sergio Gutierrez, Lori Smith, Will Wiersig, Amy Wilson and Randy Woods. The downtown association also has a paid executive director, Regalo.
