Businesses to pool ideas for a better downtown
Georgetown sees something good in Amesbury.
The town is looking to mimic Amesbury's business and tourism organization, the Alliance for Amesbury, and create a similar organization on a smaller scale to help improve downtown Georgetown.
"Our original goal was that we were looking to expand our tax base to make Georgetown a more viable place for businesses," said Jim Lacey, director of Georgetown's Finance Committee, who is leading a meeting about creating an Alliance-style organization. "We just want to maximize our potential."
He and Town Administrator Stephen Delaney have invited local businesses to attend an economic development meeting on Dec. 6. The meeting would be a brainstorming session focused on what the town's commercial area should look like in the future, they said.
To Delaney, the town needs an alliance or chamber of commerce not only to bring in business and tax money, but also to improve the downtown scene. As of now, there are shops and some places to eat, he said. There is a pub, a pizza restaurant that is planning an expansion, and Theo's, a breakfast restaurant on North Street. But there are no real places to have a sit-down dinner, he said.
"I want this community to be excited about their downtown," he said. "I want them to have a more vibrant, more central area to come to."
The town will have help with its economic mission. Town Planner Jackie Byerley was able to secure a state grant from the Department of Housing and Community Development that will pay for a consultant to help develop a vision for downtown.
The money will pay for the Cecil Group, a planning agency, to visit the town, take pictures, and work with businesses to improve the commercial area. The Cecil Group has worked with other communities on developing their downtowns, including Franklin, where new restaurants and businesses have opened.
Delaney said Georgetown is looking to Amesbury as opposed to Newburyport and other cities with chambers of commerce because Amesbury has had similar goals. Whereas Newburyport has looked to be a center for retail tourism, Amesbury has managed to keep its own residents shopping and eating within town, he said.
"Amesbury seemed to be able to get a spark," Delaney said. "Amesbury's downtown was less vibrant than Newburyport. They really seem to be doing something good over there."
Delaney said the town looked to the Alliance for Amesbury because it has a partnership with the community. In Newburyport, no elected officials sit on the chamber board, although there is cooperation between the chamber and the city. In Amesbury, the mayor and several city councilors sit on the board, although they do not vote. Lacey and Delaney hope to have selectmen or other officials participate in the Georgetown organization.
Bob Balletto, president of the recently rebuilt Georgetown Savings Bank, will be one of several representatives from the business community to take part in the Dec. 6 event and help with future planning. Balletto's bank razed the former pharmacy building at the intersection of Routes 97 and 133 where the bank is now located, and created a new structure, one that he hopes improves the look of downtown.
The building project cost more than $4 million. He said other businesses can take part in improving the look of downtown without spending as much, and that business owners should try to take part in revitalization efforts.
"We hope to make it more attractive," he said, "more welcoming."
Dennis Welcome, president of the Alliance for Amesbury, said smaller communities can benefit from having their own chamber of commerce organizations. Welcome ran the chamber in Newburyport before coming to Amesbury. He also worked in Pittsfield. He said that when smaller towns are a part of larger chambers -- such as Newburyport's, the Greater Haverhill Chamber of Commerce, or the Merrimack Valley Chamber of Commerce, they may not get as much attention as they want.
"They predominantly target their community," he said of chambers centered in a specific location that take members from outside of town. "They really don't do that much for anyone else."
The Georgetown economic development meeting is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Dec. 6 at Town Hall.
Meredith Goldstein can be reached at mgoldstein@globe.com.
