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Main Street Reports to Town Trustees – April 2020

May 13, 2020 | Trustees Report

Summary:

The Wellington Main Streets Program provides quarterly updates to the Town Trustees regarding on-going projects, organizational updates, events, and future plans. This update is for the months of February – April

Item 1: Current projects

  • Murals:
    • The “Greetings from Wellington” mural has started! This project will be completed by June 2020. The Main Streets Program will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the project and highlight the artists from Dynamic Image following the completion of the project.
    • We will be utilizing donated materials and services through Cottonwood Landscaping and BNSF Railroad to address landscaping options along the west-facing wall of the “Historic Train Depot” mural. The goal is the deter parking in front of the mural and improve the overall aesthetic.  We will be installing “No Parking” signs in front of the mural in the next few weeks.
  • Annual Color
    • Our seasonal flowers will be installed the week of May 11th-15th. We are excited about partnering with the Town of Wellington and our local businesses that have donated $2,100 this year to add some life and color into the downtown.  We appreciate your support and look forward to sharing the photos with all of you!
  • 2020 DOLA Mini-Grant (Crosswalk Project)
    • We received our purchase order for the 2020 Mini-grant funding on April 8th. This funding is to be directed towards the crosswalk project facilitated by the Town of Wellington to be completed no later than December 31st, 2020. This grant is worth $5,000. Additional funds may still be available through the Main Streets Program pending the rescheduling of our fundraising events.
  • Downtown Beautification Projects – Downtown Banners and Outdoor Furniture
    • A few of our downtown beautification projects that were planned for the Spring/Summer of 2020 may be delayed due to event cancellations. The fundraising from these events is intended to support these projects and they will hopefully happen later this year.
  • COVID-19 Promotion and Resource Efforts
    • Kallie has been collecting support links and funding resource information for small businesses and adding them to the web page wellingtonmainstreet.org/covid-19 that was created by Megan Larson with MRock Creative. Businesses have been directed to utilize this resource list and contact the Main Streets Program with any additional questions.
    • The Main Streets Program, in collaboration with the Wellington Area Chamber of Commerce, worked to install “Take Out and Curbside Pick-Up Available” signs outside all of our local restaurants as well as “Yes! We’re Open” signs on all businesses that are remaining partially or completely open during the covid-19 stay-at-home order. We have also been partnering to do “well-checks” on all our businesses individually to see how we can help them.
    • Through the month of April, we are hosting a “#WellingtonStrong Bingo” challenge to encourage residents to support local businesses by doing things like purchasing gift cards and ordering take-out or delivery from local restaurants
    • We have published four articles highlighting business support options with North Forty News and are actively using social media outlets to encourage local business support and offering several ways for the community to be involved.
    • We hosted a Facebook Live Front Porch Happy Hour at Soul Squared Brewing and Owl Canyon Coffee to talk about our promotional efforts and how we are supporting businesses downtown.
    • As of April 8th, the Chamber, Main Streets, and Town of Wellington were working together to collect funding-related resources and helping direct businesses to banks and lenders that are available to help them apply for the PPP and SBA Loans.
    • The Town of Wellington, Chamber of Commerce, and the Main Street Program will be hosting a Virtual Business Town Hall Q&A on Wednesday evening May 6th at 6 pm and on Thursday May 7th at 10 am. We will be joined by representatives from Larimer County Department of Public Health, Larimer County SBDC, the Wellington Fire Protection District and Mayor Hamman to answer covid-19 related questions from our business community.

Item 2: Events

  • The Wellington 0.5K Fun Run: Due to COVID-19 safety concerns, the 0.5K Fun Run has been postponed. We are hoping to reschedule this event for late summer/early fall.
  • Wellington Brewfest: The status of the Wellington Brewfest, scheduled for June 6th, 2020 is remaining fluid in light of COVID-19. As of now, breweries and sponsors are still moving forward with the project and the committee will continue to be flexible as we get closer to the event.
  • Well-O-Rama: This event is scheduled for August 8th from 3:00 – 7:00 pm in Centennial Park. We will be hosting three bands as well as food trucks, vendors, beer garden, and activities for kids/families.  This event has already raised over $5,000 in sponsorships and In-kind donations. Additionally, this event is the recipient of the Bohemian Foundation grant ($2,500) and the Mishawaka Foundation Grant ($500).  The Well-O-Rama planning committee will be researching the use of alternative funding resources and crowdfunding in order to raise the necessary funds to continue with this event.  As with our other events, we will continue to be flexible as the coronavirus situation progresses over the next several months.

Item 3: Other:

  • Tastemade and Realtor.com “Beyond the Block” Filming
    • Unfortunately, the crew from Tastemade had to postpone the filming of “Beyond the Block” in Wellington in March. They are still interested in filming the segment and hope to return this summer.
    • Thank you to all of the volunteers and Town staff that worked so hard to prepare for this! Let’s hope that we can still make this happen this year and promote our wonderful downtown!
  • DDA Facilitation
    • The Main Street Program utilized DOLA contracting services to host a Strategic Planning Session / DDA Conversation on February 24th. Members of the Town staff and Board of Trustees were invited to attend a portion of the event and contribute to our long term visioning and conversation regarding the establishment of a DDA in Wellington.
    • Following this meeting is was the recommendation of the Main Streets Board that the Town Trustees issue a formal request to the MS Board President to move forward with providing the contract services to implement a DDA in Wellington. These contract services are valued at roughly $30-45K.

Thank you for your ongoing support. We welcome your questions, concerns and comments! We would love to hear from the Trustees regarding what they would like to see from this program.