At the La Jolla Village Merchants Association (LJVMA) meeting on April 13, President Phil Coller announced that the San Diego City Council recently approved the association as the advisory board for the La Jolla Business Improvement District (BID), bringing it one step closer to officially having control over how and where the Village’s merchants’ assessment funds are spent. The City Council will vote on approval of contracts for all city of San Diego BIDs in May. Before it can start spending its money, however, the LJVMA has to decide exactly how to spend it. Members of several working groups appointed during the association’s last meeting came prepared to present their findings. The committee structure group visited other BIDs in and around the city to get a feel for how those are being organized. LJVMA Coller favored the “MainStreet” structure, a national program that provides a framework for community revitalization and management. “We don’t want to be another ‘lost’ city. We want to use our time and energy getting people into La Jolla,” he said. “The MainStreet program works well in 1,200 cities across the country, so let’s not waste time reinventing the wheel.” Coller announced there would be a vote to decide what structure to use for the association during its meeting next month. The events working group tackled the challenge of “bringing some excitement back to the Village,” said LJVMA Secretary Sheila Fortune. The group proposed celebrating monthly themes in the Village, such as “beautiful storefronts and gardens,” “beautiful healthy lives,” and “beautiful fashion,” each promoting different businesses in the Village. The streetscape working group updated the members and attendees on the status of street lights along Wall Street and Girard Avenue. Egon Kafka informed the association that 16 new lights had been purchased, but that 32 more were still needed for the area that has been without reliable street lighting for several months because of an outdated lighting circuit. Kafka and Coller urged residents to call the city to complain and hopefully push the reparation of the system. “We don’t want committees phoning the city, we want thousands of citizens calling to complain about the street lights,” Coller said. The number for street repair requests is (619) 527-7500.