ATHOL — Parking, safety and zoning are the top three priorities of the Athol Downtown Vitality Committee, defined by consensus during its monthly meeting.
Chairman Herb Wheeler polled the group as to its main concerns after welcoming new member Holly Young this week.
Ann Willhite said her first concern is the unsafe conditions of downtown — speeding cars, skateboarders and bicycles on sidewalks, loitering, resident behavior, drugs, graffiti, “dog visits” and dead trees.
“I have a business on Main Street,” Willhite said. “I deal with this every day.”
Concern about broken windows on storefronts was voiced, as well. Town Planner Eric Smith said he will find out whether there is any kind of town ordinance that requires property owners to repair them. Another concern was the inadequate lighting on Main Street and in the municipal parking lot.
Mary Holtorf spoke about the parking meters, saying “I think the parking is cheap” compared to other towns. She said some meters are broken and that the town should “work with the meters we’ve got,” rather than wait to upgrade to new meters that accept credit cards. She suggested the money from the meters could be used to set up a downtown improvement fund. Wheeler noted that at one time, the proceeds from the meters were used toward snow removal. Officials said they believe the money collected from meters goes into the town’s General Fund.
Holtorf said ways to make it easier for small businesses to come to town should be looked at, including looking at fees and relaxing sign and sidewalk bylaws.
“We need to make it work for retail tenants,” she said.
Holly Young said it would be nice to have benches on each of the jut-outs on the street for a more welcoming atmosphere. Wheeler noted there was a bench installed on every jut-out when Main Street was refurbished, but the issue became maintaining them. Granite or concrete seats or blocks would be an alternative to the wood benches that were installed then. Willhite said a concern about that would be the people wandering around Main Street all day, yelling up to their friends living in the apartments above businesses, smoking, people with dogs — they might take the benches, and not shoppers or people simply enjoying the town.
David Small’s main concern is parking. He suggested the town explore alternate parking opportunities that would be addressed in the Master Plan for downtown. He spoke of possibly changing the maintenance boundary to include Marble Street, and make a change in the rules for parking for businesses.
“I think we should have a maintenance section written out to go by,” he said.
Althea Bramhall, who apologized for being a few minutes late because her family surprised her with a birthday cake and pasta, said she is concerned that a lot of things on the priority list “will take a lot of money.” She said two of the items are to “encourage use of office space” above existing businesses and to “encourage new business.”
“How do we do that?” she asked.
The town does not possess a complete a list of all the Main Street building owners and tenants.
North Quabbin Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Mark Wright said he has been working on a property owner database. The chamber has been getting more calls pertaining to businesses seeking to locate in town, he said.
“We need a database (of available properties/spaces) to know who to refer these people to,” Wright said.
Smith suggested reaching out to building owners about their vacant spaces and invite them to a meeting to discuss possible options.
Shelley Small, associate member, said marketing should be done for the vacant spaces. Willhite concurred, noting the upper levels would be best for artists’ studios or others seeking their own private workspace. Wheeler said the spaces would have to be made compliant with current accessibility rules.
Inadequate lighting along Main Street was also discussed. Some of the decorative lamps and their electrical outlets do not work; the remaining ones are dimmed by the yellowing of the lamp heads, according to town officials. Wright suggested switching to glassless heads and using LED lights. He agreed to research the lighting issue and report back to the committee noting, “everything is going to cost money.”
Wheeler said the Downtown Decorating Committee worked with selectmen and National Grid some time ago to recondition all the decorative light posts downtown and uptown. The lights/poles were painted, fixed and cleaned with the help of National Grid — at no cost to the town.
David Small noted if the lights were fixed, it may also reduce the amount of electricity used.
Willhite urged the committee to keep the municipal parking lot in mind when discussing any improvements.
Regarding complaints pertaining to businesses using the sidewalk to display merchandise, it was noted that the only issue is from some businesses blocking pedestrians’ access to the sidewalk. Otherwise, the town allows use of sidewalk space through a permit process brought before the Selectboard.
The committee agreed to brief Town Manager Shaun Suhoski and plans to invite Police Chief Russell Kleber to the next meeting to go over some of their concerns. Meeting time ran out before the committee could delve into zoning concerns, so that was tabled until the next meeting on Aug. 14.