Somersworth Main Street in jeopardy

Last October, Somersworth held its fifth annual Pumpkin Festival, offering activities like carving, painting, bowling, smashing and even catapulting pumpkins. It was a successful family oriented event, complete with food, entertainment, games and contests. But the festival might not see a sixth year.

The Somersworth City Council voted in June to cut funding for the Somersworth Main Street program, which has orchestrated the pumpkin festival and other community events since 2002. The program’s board of directors will vote on whether to forge ahead without city funding in mid-August, but part-time executive director Darryl Cauchon said it does not look promising.
“The best way to say it is it doesn’t look good,” Cauchon said.

In previous years, Somersworth Main Street had received $25,000 annually from the city. Mindful of increasing energy costs, the Board of Directors reduced its request to $15,000 this year. But the council voted to cut that funding completely from the city budget, leaving Main Street to fend for itself.

“Without that base of money, it’s really hard to fundraise the difference,” said Cauchon.

The National Main Street Program began in the early 1980s, when the National Trust for Historic Preservation launched a pilot program to help three Midwestern communities rescue their crumbling downtowns. As more communities around the country began requesting assistance, the National Trust established state programs to oversee individual communities dedicated to revitalizing their downtowns.

New Hampshire’s Downtown Resource Center, a branch of the Community Development Finance Authority, currently includes 19 member communities with Main Street programs, including Somersworth, Dover and Rochester. Although the DRC provides training, education and organizational resources for its members, each community must raise its own funds.

In order to be accredited as a Main Street program, communities must have at least one paid staff member and must collect some funding from the municipality (the general guideline is to cover one third of the budget with municipal funds). But, with municipalities facing increased fuel and energy costs, some Main Street programs have struggled to get municipal funding. Many communities have been forced to come up with more creative ways of raising money.

“There are some programs that, even all those things considered, are doing very well,” said DRC director Sarah DiSano.
But Somersworth is not one of them. The city formed its Main Street program in May 2002. Alleging that the program had lost its focus, councilors voted 6-3 to slash its funding.

“When we asked the Main Street representative what had been accomplished as a result of the city’s funding, it seemed that most of the goals inherent in the Main Street program really hadn’t been addressed,” said City Councilor Michael Watman. “In tough economic times, I think you have to make tough decisions, and that was one of them.”

Councilor Dana Hilliard has proposed starting a new organization called Vision 2020, which would consist of a group of city officials and citizens who would meet to develop a clear vision for the city’s identity and determine how to mobilize groups and individuals to achieve that identity.

Watman does not think losing the Main Street program will adversely affect downtown Somersworth. He thinks residents will step forward to make sure community events like the Pumpkin Festival still happen.

“As far as making a huge impact on the downtown, I don’t think we’ve seen that to date from the Main Street program and I don’t think we’ll see a huge impact,” he said.

Rochester Main Street, on the other hand, has enjoyed considerable success since gaining membership in October 2006. The program operates on a $100,000 budget, $33,000 of which comes from the city. Unlike Somersworth or Dover, Rochester Main Street has a full-time executive director in Charles (Chip) Noon III. Noon and the Board of Directors meet with the Rochester City Council every six months to update the council on their efforts and accomplishments.

“I think one of the biggest accomplishments is letting the downtown businesses know that there’s an advocate working for them,” Noon said.

Rochester Main Street’s focus includes organizing festivals and other community events, beautification and design improvements to downtown, attracting new businesses to the city and helping existing businesses continue to thrive.

According to Noon, the program has increased attendance at downtown festivals and dramatically improved communication between local businesses and the Rochester Police Department. So far, the program hasn’t had any trouble garnering support from the City Council, he said.

Dover Main Street has come through some rocky times since forming in 1999 but continues to operate despite having its city funding reduced. In order to survive a “financial crisis,” the program temporarily eliminated its executive director and closed its physical office. Executive director Michael Provost has since been brought back on a half-time basis, and the program receives $15,000 per year from the city.

“I’m glad to be back and working in Dover,” Provost said.  

Somersworth Main Street is still committed to making sure painter Gordon Carlisle’s large mural on Constitution Way is completed this summer. Cauchon said he expects the mural, which depicts a variety of scenes reflecting the city’s history and identity on the side of the Village Market building, should be completed by mid-August.