Wheaton council supports downtown group's funding request

Despite disapproval from three council members, the Wheaton City Council appears ready 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 provided details about the group's proposed budget during a planning session Monday. The extra money, she said, would help improve year-round marketing efforts, with the purchase of new street banners, a second edition of the recently launched Living Wheaton magazine, social media and print campaigns and a push for more residents to download the group's mobile app. It would also be used to enhance the group's annual Dickens of a Christmas events.

“We are very excited about what our downtown has to offer,” Barrington said. “We just are looking for more and more opportunities to be able to promote that and share that with a broader market.”

Barrington noted that the $40,000 in supplemental funding the organization received from the city last year helped launch a new sidewalk sale and bike festival and improve the group's ice festival and Christmas parade.

Council members Phil Suess, Thor Saline and Suzanne Fitch said although they appreciate the work the organization does, they would vote no to the $40,000 request, for various reasons.

“I see the magazine as a private venture,” Fitch said. “I think it has to be private money, private risk. I don't think the taxpayers should be paying for the magazine.”

Suess said he thinks the council needs to consider what the city is doing with general funds to help other business areas in town too.

“I'm in the same place I was last year,” he said. “I just feel in the environment we're in, we have to live within the dollars we have.”

But Councilman John Rutledge said he would support the supplemental funding, along with Mayor Michael Gresk and Councilmen Todd Scalzo. Councilman John Prendiville was absent, but City Manager Don Rose said he indicated that he would vote yes to the request.

“My sense of benefit to the entire city is that we need to have a vibrant downtown,” Rutledge said. “I think it's good for Wheaton as a whole to have the events that the DWA does.”

Scalzo said while he would approve the request, he would like to see the downtown area on the south side of the railroad tracks get more attention and be the setting for future events.

Barrington said the organization is thinking about the south side more. Additionally, some new changes coming this year include turning the wine festival into a wine walk, modeled after a similar event in Libertyville, to get attendees visiting businesses and restaurants for samples. There are also plans to bring back a “broker's walk,” which would give investors an opportunity to tour vacant properties.

The request will be placed on an upcoming regular city council agenda for formal approval.