The Aberdeen City Council this week will consider a contract extension with the Aberdeen Revitalization Movement organization. In 2017, the city entered a three-year contract with the downtown improvement group, with the primary goal of gaining Main Street designation for the city. That goal was achieved in late 2018: typically, it’s a three-year process, ARM managed it in about eight months.
Main Street designation gives ARM access to resources to benefit downtown and it comes with some federal tax advantages for people who make investments in their downtown property. There are also grants that ARM can apply for to help with local projects because they are now one of the state’s recognized Main Street programs.
At its Jan. 27 meeting, and with the existing $60,000 per year contract at its end, the City Council considered a contract extension with ARM while a new contract was considered. The council, citing lack of information on what the organization’s accomplishments were and what specific deliverables would be included in the new contract, tabled that recommendation.
If the council decides to not provide ARM with city funding, the city’s Main Street designation will not go away, said ARM Vice President Bette Worth, but it would mean the organization would have to scramble “to find other means to raise the money” to get the most of out of the program.
ARM and Main Street are funded in part through B&O taxes and donations. The original contract between the city and ARM paid for rent on the organization’s office space, utilities and ARM Director Wil Russoul’s salary.
On Feb. 3, the council held a workshop with Russoul and members of the ARM board to discuss the accomplishments and future of the organization.
Councilwoman Dee Anne Shaw said the first contract with ARM was for Main Street designation. “What we are trying to do here is see what does that relationship look like going forward?”
Russoul spoke to the council about accomplishments like working with the Legislature to pass legislation to extend tax credits on properties in distressed areas including Aberdeen and Hoquiam for up to 24 years. Russoul said because of that legislation he can go to owners of downtown buildings and tell them they have the stability to improve their buildings over the long haul.
More recently, Russoul said the group worked with Aberdeen Police Chief Steve Shumate to purchase two electric bicycles to use on patrol of the downtown. “Now we’re looking at a grant to deliver two more,” said Russoul. That funding was raised through the organization’s sale of advertising space in its publications, and news of the purchase had that very day prompted another business to purchase space, seeing the money would be spent toward the betterment of downtown.
When asked to comment at the end of the workshop, Mayor Pete Schave said a commitment to downtown revitalization requires the city’s ongoing financial support.
“I was just thinking of our experience with Main Street going back to the early 90s where we tried to get things going, and learned it was slow going,” he said. “It takes a long time to get over the hump and it requires considerable investment in it. That is going to be hard and it’s going to take time and going to cost money.”
He continued, “I said three years ago that I felt the city should invest in a director and an assistant and help with an office, that was minimal. It takes a long time to get Main Street to work, and I’m curious how many other cities in three years have succeeded in being self-sufficient as a Main Street group.”
As for the Main Street program itself, “One thing about this investment is we’re investing in a program that is a proven program. We are investing our money into something that has directions and angles that it functions in and it’s proven. It just takes time. There’s no quick way to do it, and Aberdeen is a tough cookie.”
A successful Main Street program requires public private partnerships, said Breanne Durham, the state’s Main Street coordinator.
“I think it’s highly appropriate to continue to think of funding as an investment as opposed to an idea that it becomes self-sufficient, meaning no more public funding is needed,” she said. “It was meant to be a partnership, and with limited knowledge of (ARM’s) budget you have actually achieved a pretty big deliverable out of that public private funding.”
She continued, “We do not see programs become solely funded by the private sector after a short period of time, and really that’s not an ideal scenario, because you do want private/public partnerships.” She used as examples successful Main Street communities like Port Townsend, that has been around much longer than Aberdeen, that are still publicly funded.
Under consideration at the council meeting Wednesday will be the same contract extension that was tabled at the Jan. 27 meeting. The $10,000 extension will run through the end of this month as the city hammers out contract details of a potential new contract to replace the now-ended previous contract of $60,000 annually, paid in quarterly $15,000 installments.
