Council Vets Revised Main Street Budget

Representatives of the Main Street Chestertown program, at the May 15 town council meeting, presented an amended budget request for the recently revived program.

Just before the Main Street presentation, Town Manager Bill Ingersoll introduced the town’s budget for Fiscal 2018. He said the town expects revenues of $5,304,563 and expenses of $5,329.665, leaving a deficit of $25,102. The difference will be made up from unappropriated surplus funds from the previous year. The budget is still subject to revision, and there will be a public hearing before the June 5 council meeting. It was the overall constraints on the budget that led to the downward revision of the Main Street budget request.

Kay MacIntosh, who is the town’s economic development coordinator as well as the Main Street manager, and Main Street treasurer Jeff Weber said the new request of $14,300 represents a 75 percent reduction of the group’s original proposal.

The Main Street request includes $3,000 for startup expenses for events, including the Fall Lights Festival and Dickens’ Holiday around Christmas. Another $2,300 is for registration for four participants in the National Main Street conference, held this year in Pittsburgh. MacIntosh said one of the requirements for membership in the Main Street program is sending the local manager to the national convention.

The group also requested $2,000 for directors’ and officers’ liability insurance and $1,500 to develop a logo, a tagline and other promotional materials such as stationery and cards.

MacIntosh said a large part of the original $60,000 budget request was a fee for marketing, which she said the group expected to pay for from increased proceeds from the county hotel tax, which the town negotiated about a year ago. “My thinking was to take about $30,000 from that funding and give it to the Main Street promotion committee, because we’ve got some real good talent on that committee,” she said. She said she, Heckles and Weber had cut back the request to the bare bones to get the group started. She said the group would be applying for grants to carry forward its program.

Mayor Chris Cerino asked if the grants were specific to the Main Street program. “Main Street encourages you to set up all these great committees, but I haven’t always felt the state then backs it up with grants specifically for you. A lot of the expense ends up coming back to the town. It would be great if Main Street actually funded some of the concepts that they’re promoting.”

MacIntosh said Main Street Chestertown got a $12,000 grant from the state organization last year, because the program was being revived. She said the state organization guides local chapters to some of the funds available from the state Department of Housing and Community Development. She said there were also grants through the Department of Commerce available to the Arts & Entertainment District, which she said was now being considered part of the Main Street program.

“It would be nice if we get the grants and then spend the money, instead of spending the money before we get the grants,” said Councilman Marty Stetson.

“It’s a question of trying to make an impact right away,” said MacIntosh.

“This is not going to be a situation where we come back every year and increase the level we ask year after year,” said Weber, the group’s treasurer. “This is our first year of operation.” He said most of the Main Streets across the country find that their funding comes about equally from their towns, from grants, and from sponsors. He said Main Street Chestertown has identified grants that could potentially fund some of its activities. “Because we’re in the early stages, we have to rely on the town for kind of the seed money, to give us the kick. In the second year, you’ll see an improved level of finances and in the third year, and so on,” Weber said.

Cerino said the town’s budget was “structurally, really, really tight. Our revenues have basically been pretty flat since 2009, I’d say. And our expenses continue to go up.” He said 95 percent of the town’s budget goes to police protection, road crews, town hall staff and other essentials. “Everyone wants the town to look awesome, and everyone wants trails and parks. And all of that cool stuff happens through grants that we bust our butts outside of this budget to obtain. That’s probably the way that Main Street is going to end up having to survive and thrive. Hopefully, down the road, it’ll be more grant and less town.” He said he appreciated the group’s effort to get its budget request down to a more feasible level.

Councilwoman Liz Gross said there was enough money already in the budget to cover the request. “It doesn’t match exactly to the information that we have, but we have at least $14,500 between Main Street, the marketing committee, funding for Christmas lights, and the holiday celebration. I think we’re there.”

Among other issues was a concern by council members about overlap of activities between Main Street and existing groups such as the Downtown Chestertown Association. “Main Street and DCA are collaborating very closely,” MacIntosh said. She said the idea was to collaborate with DCA to bring more resources to the table. “It’s a question of taking what’s there and ramping it up into something really special,” she said.

She said the new Dickens’ Holiday is an example. “We realized last year, when we had Winterfest and Cross Street Realty embellished it with horse-drawn carriages and A&E District had fire pits, we had the makings here of a Dickens theme, which would enable us to market it a little more strongly.” She said it would help differentiate Chestertown from other Maryland towns that have winter festivals. “If people do come to town, it’s a “Wow,” and they go home and talk about what a great time they had in Chestertown.”

Councilwoman Linda Kuiper asked if this would replace the DCA’s Christmas activities.

MacIntosh said the DCA would continue its celebration the week before with Santa’s arrival and the “shop local” theme.

Kuiper said the DCA has Christmas items in the town’s budget.

Gross said, “Just change it to Main Street.”

“I don’t want to take any money away from DCA,” said MacIntosh. “We’ll be collaborating with them, I’m sure.” She also outlined the different responsibilities of DCA’s Curb Appeal campaign, the Garden Club and Main Street in keeping up the appearance of the streets and parks. “Down the road, it might all be under one budget, but right now I don’t feel comfortable taking that money away from DCA and Curb Appeal.”

Councilman Sam Shoge said, “A lot of our confusion comes down to, why are we funding Main Street when we already have an organization that is funded to do that certain task.” He said the streetscaping that Main Street plans may be in the organization’s bylaws, “but we already have a group that’s committed to doing that. I think we’d rather fund them than fund two organizations to do one project.”

MacIntosh said Main Street could talk to the DCA to see if the Curb Appeal might be merged into the Main Street design committee, “but I can’t make that decision for them.”

Shoge said that in the long run, it would be “a good conversation to have, so the town doesn’t find itself trying to decide between two organizations doing the same thing at budget time.

Main Street President Paul Heckles said DCA has been a great organization, “and they’ve really hit their stride now.” He said the Main Street organizers didn’t think it was a good time to think about combining the two organizations while Main Street is still in its early stages. “We talk all the time, it’s essentially the same people.”

Stetson said he hoped the Main Street people would make an effort to work with other parts than downtown. He said the shopping centers and the planned KRM business park in the recently annexed tract north of town have significant economic impact on the town.

MacIntosh said she has been in touch with the principals of the KRM business park. But she said the Main Street program focuses on downtown, the health of which affects the whole community.

Cerino said MacIntosh had been instrumental in getting KRM to commit to developing the business park.

Shoge said “cross-pollination is good, the whole town benefits,” but the issue the council needs to consider is budgetary.

Gross said that the budget includes enough for marketing and promotion to cover Main Street’s request, “it’s just not quite organized in the same verbiage.”

Cerino said, “It might be helpful for Kay and Paul and (the council) to sit down and go over what’s already in the budget.”

Shoge said such a meeting would be helpful. “Outside your overall job description, I don’t think we adequately gave you an overall mission. I think that future joint session with give us a better idea what you’ve been up to, what your board members are doing, and how the overall town is going to benefit from that.”

MacIntosh said she would be glad to work with the council to clarify her office’s needs.

Ingersoll said, “We’d like to know what you’re doing and what your immediate needs are.” He said he thought it was possible the county could move more revenue from the hotel tax toward the town if it more aggressively taxed “air B&Bs.”

Following the Main Street budget discussion, Weber and Hammond gave a presentation on possible ways to capitalize on the county’s installation of fiber-based high-speed broadband internet, which would include a greatly enhanced network within the town. They noted how the county is already aggressively marketing its status as a possible hot spot for new business.

They described two grants, from the Rural Maryland Council and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, for which the town might qualify, one for as much as $500,000. The grants could be used to market the town and county. The grants would become available early in 2018. That would allow the town to take advantage of the marketing opportunity while it still has the lead on communities in neighboring counties, which are likely to obtain high-speed broadband over the next few years.

MacIntosh said the presentation was meant as a heads-up to the town in the event Main Street comes in to request support for a grant application at the beginning of June, which is the deadline for a preliminary filing for the Rural Maryland grant.