Wheaton council OKs extra $40,000 for downtown group
Wheaton council members agreed with a 4-2 vote Monday to provide the Downtown Wheaton Association with $40,000 in supplemental funding for the 2016-17 fiscal year.
Downtown Wheaton Association Executive Director Paula Barrington said the extra money will enhance the group's annual Dickens of a Christmas events and improve year-round marketing efforts with the purchase of new street banners, the publication of a second edition of the recently launched Living Wheaton magazine, and new social media and print campaigns.
"We do view the additional funding as a way for our organization to provide additional services and to grow as things are changing and evolving in the downtown area," she said. "Certainly we want to see new businesses coming in, we want to support the current businesses that we have ... and at the same time, we also want to be able to enhance that downtown, continue to allow it to be a destination for the shopping, the dining, the many services."
At a planning session last month, three council members - Phil Suess, Suzanne Fitch and Thor Saline - said they had concerns with the $40,000 request. Suess said he didn't think the organization should receive extra money for a third year when taxes are being raised and funds need to go elsewhere in the city. Fitch said she felt taxpayer money shouldn't be used to pay for a magazine, which is part of the association's marketing efforts.
Saline, however, changed his position Monday. He said he would have liked to lower the funding level, but decided to approve the group's $40,000 request when it appeared a compromise wasn't possible.
"It was my desire to split the difference between the 40 (thousand dollars) and nothing at all, looking for something, kind of a step down, over the course of the next few years," he said. "I've spoken to a few people and I don't want to cut (the Downtown Wheaton Association) off completely from support, but I don't think we have an appetite really to kind of come to an understanding of a middle ground."
Councilmen John Rutledge, John Prendiville and Todd Scalzo voted yes to the request. Mayor Michael Gresk was absent Monday, but said last month that he would support the supplemental funding.
"I think overall the DWA brings much to greater city, not just the downtown business area, so that's why I support the additional funding out of our general fund budget," Prendiville said.