At the request of Town Manager Tim Pellerin, the Town Council unanimously authorized him to take charge of interviewing and choosing members of a new Downtown Revitalization Project Committee.
“Knowing everything you have on your plate, I am just trying to help you out,” Pellerin told the council last week.
Pellerin anticipates the advisory committee will meet monthly for 12 to 16 months. It will be an ad hoc committee with no decision-making authority, he said.
The committee will work with Wright Pierce of Topsham, the consulting firm hired by the town to help with the revitalization project, and will make its recommendations to the Town Council. During the process, the committee will pull in other townspeople for input on various topics, Pellerin said, and breakout groups will be assigned to work on specific issues along the way.
Public hearings will be scheduled, and the Town Council will have final say on any actions taken, he said.
Pellerin gave the council a list of people who have volunteered to serve on the committee, but noted town officials had to “beat the bushes” to get people on that list. In some cases, he said, town officials “had to take the applications to people and hand them to them and say, ‘please fill this in.'”
The town website now states: “We have received an overwhelming response to the Downtown Revitalization Plan Advisory Committee and are no longer accepting applications.”
The list of names given to the council raised concerns among at least some councilors that the makeup of the committee was skewed toward business owners.
“I’m all about Tim taking over this interview process. I’m just concerned that what I’m seeing here is a lot of business owners, and I feel like we’re stacking the deck,” said Councilor Melissa Costella. “I was hoping to see more diversity.”
Council Chair Mallory Cook suggested that interest might grow as the process continues.
“I feel from conversations I have had with folks in the community that there might be more interest in this as the ball starts rolling,” Cook said. “Maybe we can add a couple of residents later on if there is a significant interest from some residents because this is a pretty business-heavy list.”
Pellerin noted that in his experience with volunteer committees, people drop off over time, and he agreed with the option of adding residents later.
