Let

Throughout the winter, there have been many informative articles regarding the Main Street approach, the importance of revitalizing Presque Isle, and the ways to do just that. We’ve even taken a few trips through memory lane and imaginary neighborhoods together.
    We’ve talked the talk. Now it’s time to “walk the walk.” We want you to know that many things are in the planning stages as a result of our revitalization efforts this year.
The first exciting thing we’d like to mention is the addition of David Lanphear to our organization. Mr. Lanphear has taken the new position of City Planner for Presque Isle, and will be devoting 10 hours a week to our downtown revitalization efforts. We look forward to working together with him to re-energize our city.
We’re also in the process of creating a Web presence for our revitalization committee. It will be part of the city’s Web site for now.
Great things are beginning to be formulated by the Presque Isle Downtown Revitalization Committee. We are beginning to do our strategic planning – setting our short-term, as well as our long-range goals. We’ve already begun discussing the purchase and maintenance of flowers to decorate Main Street for next summer, and the purchase of Christmas lights for next winter. We will be planning a spring clean-up event to take place in a few months, and an extravaganza to ease us through the seasonal transition next fall.
We’re planning to work on parking lot signage for the downtown area and on ways to meet and greet new people who are new to our city. We’re working to find ways to coordinate with the city to encourage new businesses to locate downtown. And, as you already know, we’re promoting the re-birth of the Braden Theater.
These are just a few of the items on our agenda. We have an eager and energetic group that is working to make the Star City shine more brightly.
We would really like your help, however. We need your suggestions. What would you like to see us address as we create and prioritize goals for revitalizing our downtown? If you are relatively new to the area, what is your impression? What did you first see when you got here, that you liked and that need to be improved? What do you think we should be working on?
If you have lived here forever, what would you like to see revitalized? What should we do to re-ignite the spark that was once here?
We would also like to know what we could do to decorate the bridges in a way that would welcome people into the city, but that would be fairly low maintenance. As you are well aware, we put flower boxes on the State Street and Park Street bridges last summer. However, the strong sun, together with dust and wind, dried them out very quickly. It is very dangerous to water them daily as they require, but we would like to do something to create “eye candy” for people entering our fair city. We welcome your suggestions.
Please write us with your thoughts and opinions. It’s your city and we need your input. You can write us at: The Presque Isle Downtown Revitalization Committee, 411 Main St., Presque Isle, Maine 04769, or you can e-mail us at: pidrc@yahoo.com.
The Presque Isle Downtown Revitalization Committee is
an ad hoc committee of the Presque Isle City Council