June 2008 Newsletter

Happy Summer to everyone! It’s finally arrived, and with it has come some new faces at the Tilton Main Street Program and the beginning of some of our annual programs.

The Tilton Main Street Program is excited to welcome Melissa Higgins of Mill River Tack Shop at Riverfront Place as a new board member. Melissa will serve as Secretary.  In addition, Jim Wells of the Tilton Artisan’s Gallery has joined the board as Treasurer.  Both new members are committed to helping TMSP work towards a thriving downtown and we are excited about the ideas they’ve already brought to the board.

In addition to new board members, we are very excited by our two newest volunteers, John Cirello and Irene Haley.  John works at the N.H. Veteran’s Home and Irene runs the Quilting Corner in Riverfront Place. Thank you to both of them for committing what little extra time they have to working with us to improve Tilton’s downtown.  If there are any other shop owners out there interested in volunteering, TMSP is moving toward a project-based volunteer program and we’d love to hear from you.

As you all will recall, last fall the NH Main Street Center and the CDFA restructured the Main Street Program, and the TMSP board is working to reenergize it’s current list of projects and think about how it will move forward in this new working relationship with the CDFA. As part time administrator, Sarah Paratore will be helping out to help keep the program moving forward and the events on track.

With the arrival of another summer comes the flower barrel project. We are shooting to have them out in mid June, thanks to the generous donations of supplies and time by Lowes, and its dedicated employees Kristie Johns and Shelley Cram. If anyone is interested in helping with the planting, just leave a message at the Main Street office.

Plans are underway for Summer Fair. This will be the 20th anniversary of the fair in all of its incarnations. We are hoping for a big event, and are looking for participants. TMSP plans to recruit sponsors for this year’s fair, and plans are underway to advertise more heavily. Given the current state of the economy and the rising cost of gas, we have a good chance of a very high turn out.

As a way to further entice visitors to Summer Fair, we’d like to advertise as many in-store activities as we can and provide a map to fair attendees.  Merchants should consider offering a free children’s activity to draw customers in. Perhaps a make-your-own project related to your type of retail goods—bookmarks if you sell gifts, cookies if you sell baked goods, plant-your-own-seeds if you sell gardening materials. These activities could be set up outside your store if space is an issue, though inside would be the best opportunity to get customers into your store to see your offerings. We’d be happy to help come up with other in-store activities if you are interested. Maybe have an employee dressed as a children’s character and hand out balloons. This would be festive and require little extra effort, but would make a memorable impression on potential customers. We have a list of ideas that we’ve come up with. If you’re interested in hearing some of them, leave a message at the TMSP office or email sarah341@verizon.net.

Efforts are underway to get the Tilton Farmer’s started up again. TMSP will continue to hold the farmer’s market on Saturday mornings starting in June, and we are looking for more vendors. We are working on expanding our market, and would also like to find some acoustical musicians to play at the market. If you know of any interested individuals, please give us a call.

The group advertising has been running in the Winnisquam Echo for a few months now, and some merchants can attribute direct sales to those ads. As the program moves forward, we’ll continue to evaluate its success and perhaps adapt it a bit.

Finally, merchants are invited to attend our monthly merchant meetings. Please join us and share your ideas about how to invigorate the downtown community. Our summer merchant meetings are June 25th, July 23rd, and August 20th, beginning at 6 pm.

Thanks! Sarah Paratore
Tilton Main Street Program

 
P4 Consignment and More, 277 Main Street, 286-4206

Salon 281, 281 Main Street,

Laurie Donlop Realty, 258 Main St., 286-4400

Country Brookside Realty, 285 Main Street, 286-2266