FARMINGTON — At the March 23 board meeting, selectmen approved two expenditures from the Downtown TIF District account.
Half of the expected cost, $2,500 was approved to finance a media relations person for the Farmington Downton Association. The Association is looking to hire a part-time person on average three hours per week to work on marketing, update their website and maintain its social media presence.
“We are struggling with keeping the website up to date,” Pins and Needles owner Cheri Thompkins said. “We’re all business owners. Some of us are media savvy, some are not. Facebook isn’t really being maintained. A lot of it is because people are involved with their own businesses. It’s hard to come up with who is actually going to be doing it. There’s no designated person.
“Having someone in a responsible position would be recommendable,” she said. “I think it would go a long way towards promoting the downtown, could get more businesses involved with the Association, make it more of a positive presence.”
As a business owner, Thompkins said she doesn’t have the time to do that.
“I’ve been here 17 years,” she said. “We have a fantastic downtown but it needs to work together better.”
It would be great to have a person take on this aspect of it to create excitement in what’s going on downtown, she noted. Everything can’t go through the Chamber, she added.
The Association has funds for the position and a membership drive is planned, Thompkins answered when asked. It is also looking at updating the walking map, she said.
“We’re hoping to cause more people to join, modernize it, make it more valuable,” Mixed-Up owner Diane Ellis said.
“They have an annual budget of between $6,000 and $8,000,” Town Manager Richard Davis said. “Most of that is spoken for because of events that are put on. They run a really tight ship.”
Selectmen also approved using $150,000 from the Downtown TIF District reserve account to complete decorative street lighting for the High Street renovation project.
Plans to rebuild High Street include improving parking, creating a bus lane in front of the University of Maine-Farmington gym and installing speed tables.
The work would be done in two phases, Town Manager Richard Davis said.
“The first phase will be from Broadway, Perham to South street,” he told selectmen Oct. 27. “We’re looking to make some street improvements to improve parking access along the street, install a bus lane along the Dearborn Hall gym for the travel team and add a couple of raised speed tables as we have on Front Street.”
There is a section that’s within the Downtown tax increment financing district from Broadway almost to Academy Street and on the other side from Perham to Middle Street, Davis had noted.
The Downtown TIF committee met March 10, recommended extending the TIF district down both sides of High Street to Lake Avenue, Davis said.
“It is quite a process to do that, it would have had to be done by March 1 to have the funds available,” he said. “I discovered in researching our TIF plan the funds don’t have to be spent in the TIF district if they meet certain requirements.”
Funds may be used for the extension of public infrastructures outside the district to assist in future growth, expansion within the district, Davis said. Community-wide investments, cost of economic development projects are also possible, he said.
Last year $50,000 was appropriated from the TIF reserve account, he said. Appropriating $150,000 this year would average out to $100,000 over a two-year period, he noted.
“It would be enough money to do this whole project all at once from High Street down to the South Street area,” Davis said. “If you’re going to do it, do it all at once, get it done.”
In other business, the board approved a new road name, LEAP Lane.
LEAP is building a training facility on the Livermore Falls Road, Davis said. Any time there’s more than one building, it needs a state E-911 address, he noted.
“I suggested LEAP Lane, they’re okay with that,” Davis said.
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