Oak Harbor’s historic downtown on Jan. 1 will become an official Washington State Main Street Community, a step that city businesses and leaders hope will bring the money and training to revitalize the area.
“I was thrilled to get the letter Tuesday telling us we’d been accepted as a Main Street community,” said Margaret Livermore, president of the not-for-profit organization that pushed for membership, the Oak Harbor Main Street Association. “Our group worked hard on the application, and we have finally made it to the finish line.”
Yet the real work has yet to begin, she conceded.
LOW FOOT traffic, tired buildings, empty storefronts, the absence of key types of businesses and profusion of others — these are just a few of the challenges faced by the the stretch of Southeast Pioneer Way between Southeast Ely Street and Southeast Midway Boulevard.
“Historic Oak Harbor has lost its quaintness, its connection to the water,” Livermore said. “We need to make it a place people want to come to.”
THE MERCHANTS’ and association’s wish list for the area is long. Landlords need to fix up their buildings and then lower their rents, at least temporarily, to let new businesses get started.
The right kind of businesses — bakeries, ice cream parlors, anything that lures tourists and keeps locals from having to shop off-island — need to be attracted and retained. The hair-and-nails salons, tattoo parlors and churches that now proliferate need to be thinned out.
LIVE MUSIC at night would be nice. Vacant lots could become pocket parks. Well-lit walkways could connect Pioneer Way with the waterfront a block away, according to the plan. How about a public pier? And bicycle, kayak and paddleboard rental kiosks on the waterfront during the summer?
The city’s Main Street Association hopes becoming a Main Street Community can provide the means to achieve those goals.
Main Street membership means Oak Harbor can draw on the resources of the statewide Main Street program, receiving advice and information and getting help, if desired, in developing its board and committees.
But perhaps most importantly, it means more money.
BECOMING A Main Street Community allows most businesses — those in Washington State that file their state excise taxes online and pay state B&O (business and occupation) or public-utility tax — to donate up to $250,000 a year each to the program. Their incentive is that they get 75 percent of their donation amount credited against their B&O or public-utility tax the following year.
Oak Harbor’s Main Street Association is a 501(c)(3) organization, so a business’s donation may also be eligible as a federal income tax deduction.
The state’s Main Street program encourages businesses to donate early in each new calendar year, because the state pays a maximum of $1.5 million in tax credits per year, and no Main Street Community can get more than $133,333 in a given year.
The roughly 25 Main Street Communities within Washington state, including Coupeville, Langley and Port Townsend, all draw from the $1.5-million pool, so getting businesses to pledge their donations to Oak Harbor early in 2016 will be crucial, Livermore said.
“If Walmart, banks and other big businesses contribute, we could hit the maximum,” Livermore said.
She declined to speculate how much might be collected for the cause, however.
DOWNTOWN OAK Harbor business owners on Thursday largely expressed support for the Main Street donation program. Ron Apgar, owner of the Paint Your World ceramics studio, said he’d likely donate 70 percent of his 2015 B&O tax, totaling between $400 and $500.
Bob Olson, who owns Whidbey Wild Bird, said that he’s still trying to understand how the tax-credit system works but that “it sounds like a really good deal.” He wondered, however, whether Main Street membership “is really going to benefit the downtown, or is it just another program to have?”
Karen Mueller, owner of Wind & Tide Bookshop, said she is studying whether to make a donation and hopes the program might spruce up her building.
The historic downtown has 87 businesses.
In addition to businesses’ contributions, other monies are set to flow to the association. It will get $3,500 from Oak Harbor’s lodging tax, Livermore said. And Oak Harbor’s city council is set on Tuesday to consider donating $40,000 in 2016, then getting a credit on its public utility tax the following year. Whether it does so depends in part on whether the association creates a permanent board of directors and a permanent executive director, said City Administrator Doug Merriman on Thursday.
TAKING THOSE steps are among the obligations of becoming a Main Street Community. The association must appoint a full-time, paid executive director within a year. It must create a board of volunteer directors representing a range of downtown stakeholders and must form four “strong and active” committees, one each for design, economic restructuring, organization and promotion, according to the program’s policies.
It must file quarterly online reports tracking revitalization statistics, key performance measures and progress, and it must attend retreats, meetings and conferences.
The board’s composition is unclear at the moment. Incoming mayor Bob Severns, his wife, Rhonda, and Oak Harbor Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Christine Cribb will be stepping down from the board, Livermore said. The new board can have as many as 13 members and ideally will include landlords, business owners, bankers and others from throughout the business community, she said.
At 62, Livermore said she isn’t interested in becoming the executive director.
RESULTS FROM becoming a Main Street Community may not be apparent within a year, two years or even longer, Livermore said, drawing on the experience of other nearby municipalities that have received Main Street membership.
“Coupeville, Langley and Port Townsend have taken several years to really show improvements,” she said.
It will take at least a year of administrative efforts before any substantive work gets under way, estimated Apgar.
Coupeville’s Historic Waterfront Association won its Main Street Community designation in 2007.
Asked whether she had any advice for Oak Harbor, Coupeville’s association Executive Director Vickie Chambers suggested it start recruiting volunteers.
“The community must embrace the effort, whether through dollars or volunteer hours,” she said Thursday.
“The efforts of volunteers are critical.”
CHAMBERS SAID efforts are under way to persuade the state legislature to increase the tax-credit cap to $3 million, from $1.5 million. Meanwhile, even though Oak Harbor is now a competitor for the limited funds, “we welcome them to the Main Street organization and offer them our congratulations.”
Lorinda Kay, Program Manager for the Langley Main Street Association, advised Oak Harbor to “take baby steps.”
“It’s best to have small, great successes and build up experience that way.”
For info, visit www.oakharbormainstreet.com
