By Susan de Castro McCann

Redstone Review Editor

LYONS – Although Main Street Programs are not a new idea, they are gaining popularity because towns see that the programs can revitalize downtown areas, and merchants find that there is strength in numbers.

Recently Jacque Watson, Lyons economic development and community relations manager, presented some of the ideas behind the Main Street Program to the town board. A meeting to explain the concepts behind the Main Street Program will be held from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. on October 27 at the town hall. The meeting is open to the public, merchants and all interested parties. An earlier meeting for stakeholders which includes downtown property owners, merchants, vendors and business people in the downtown area will be held from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on October 27 at the town hall.

Watson said that the program recognizes the importance of historic buildings, but does not create historic districts. “By embracing the importance of historic buildings, this gives us access to engineers, architects and others who are trained to work with older buildings,” she said.

The concept behind the Main Street Program is to have the town set up a mechanism for the downtown area merchants to form an organization, such as a downtown development district or some other organization, where they create funding through some form of taxation or some other form to enhance and market the downtown area. The downtown area includes businesses on High Street and Broadway in Lyons.

“There would be a downtown manager who would be a liaison between the merchants and the town board,” said Watson. “The manager would listen to the merchants and take their concerns to the board. There would also be a downtown board made up of merchants. The board and manager would work with the merchants to create programs and events for the downtown area to bring in more business.”

The idea is to market the downtown and bring new people to the area to shop and take part in events. Watson said that some people are saying that we don’t need to market the downtown because it has been revitalized through the new streetscaping project.

“The shininess will soon wear off the brass,” she said, adding that newness of the downtown facelift won’t last long and the town needs to continue to create ways to revitalize the downtown.

Main Street Programs have many advantages and are widely recognized around the country. Watson said that she hopes all the merchants will actively want to participate. The meeting on Oct. 27 will give everyone a chance to ask questions.

Town approves Madhava Honey annexation

In other matters the town board approved the ordinance for the annexation of the Madhava Honey property, 4689 Ute Hwy., on the second reading. This is the second property to be approved for annexation along the eastern corridor of Lyons along Colorado Highway 66.

The first property to be annexed is the Lyons Farmette, west of the U Pump It gas station along the eastern end of town on Colorado Highway 66. The Farmette is owned by Mike Whipp and Betsy Burton.

Currently the Madhava Honey property is under contract to Grace Design, owned by Michael and Eban D. Grace. Grace Design designs and builds professional audio equipment for global professional and consumer markets. Most of their business is focused on the music industry.

Their business is located in Boulder but they would like to purchase and move the business to Lyons. Both partners reside in Lyons. Currently they employ 13 people but hope to expand with in the next five years to 15 to 20 people. They said that they would actively seek to hire locally. And they hope to engage in greening of the property including gardening and permaculture. The sale and purchase of the Madhava Honey property was contingent on annexation. Grace Design is expected to take over soon.

Town approves a new IGA

The town also approved its version of the Internal Governmental Agreement, IGA, which it has been working on for months. The new IGA expands the planning area for Lyons along the eastern gateway corridor along Highway 66. The IGA will now go to the Boulder County Commissioners who will add and subtract the changes that they want in the IGA before it comes back to the Lyons Town Board for a vote.

The town found itself at odds with the county on a few occasions over some property boundaries that were left out of the original IGA. But Lyons forged ahead with the process working steadfastly on the new IGA. The current IGA expires in December 2012.

“We need to renew the IGA to match the current comp plan,” said Mayor Julie Van Domelen. “The current IGA is not reflective of our current comp plan.”

Boulder County recently approved an amendment to the current IGA with Lyons to include three properties into the Lyons planning area. The properties are partial or complete properties which were inadvertently left out of the planning area.

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