The Aberdeen City Council has agreed to financially support the Aberdeen Main Street program for another month and a half while the two parties work on a longer term contract, and some council members say they want the new agreement to include measurable items that would show progress in rejuvenating downtown.
The city has had a contract with a spinoff organization affiliated with the Aberdeen Revitalization Movement (ARM). Both are non-profit. The $60,000 annual contract ended at the beginning of the year and there’s been no city funding since then. On Wednesday, the council passed a contract extension through the end of March.
The Aberdeen Revitalization Movement pushed the Main Street designation through a complicated process to get official designation. It provides a city resources to improve its downtown core, and includes some tax incentive programs to encourage investments in downtown properties. There are also grant opportunities for Main Street cities that aren’t otherwise available without the designation.
Council weighs in
Some on the council felt there shouldn’t be any city funding for the organization until a new contract was drafted that clearly outlines expectations for the organization in return for its city funding.
“Though I strongly support the Main Street objective and keeping a part of that, my personal opinion is that this contract needs to be completely rethought,” said Councilman Nathan Kennedy. He said his own conversations with downtown businesses and other organizations led him to think ARM has “really fallen short of expectations,” and “I don’t feel comfortable giving them any money at this point until we have an actual contract in place.”
Councilwoman Liz Ellis said she believes the organization has done some “wonderful work” that the city itself can’t take on, and this is the opportunity to develop a contract that will ensure lines of communication between the organization and the city and pinpoint specific deliverables, and timelines for them.
“Investing in them gives us away of investing in our business community and making sure they get some much needed support, especially at this difficult time,” said Ellis.
Councilwoman Tawni Andrews preferred Kennedy’s approach.
“I’ve had way too many downtown business owners approach me lately and (saying they’re) not getting any deliverables from Main Street or ARM, and so I have a concern with that,” she said, adding she would not support the contract extension.
Others on the council felt cutting off funding during negotiations wasn’t the right way to go.
“It doesn’t feel like the high road to cut off funding for a couple of months while we try to come to an agreement on a long term arrangement,” said Council President Dee Anne Shaw.
“I agree we need some changes there,” said Councilman Frank Gordon, “but we can’t starve them out so the program shuts down while we’re trying to adjust the program. We should fund them for a short time … whatever you need to get the program going the way it should be for the city.”
Community Development Director Lisa Scott said a longer term contract should be ready for council review at the Feb. 24 meeting. The main focus of the initial 2017 contract — a 3-year deal with quarterly $15,000 payments from the city — was achieving Main Street designation, which was accomplished in less than a year. That funding is used for Russoul’s salary and other expenses like utilities and the organization’s office space on I Street.
“We’ve taken a good look at some of the other contracts with (Main Street) cities across the state, and ultimately it’s up to the staff to put this together, and then give council a chance to review it,” said Councilwoman Deborah Ross. “I definitely want to see this move forward because I think it’s important for the city to have that relationship.”
In the end, a voice vote by the council approved an extension through March while the new contract is drafted.
