Main Street talks planters

Howard Samelson and Deb Tudor were named board members to serve on the Main Street Thermopolis board during their meeting May 28.

Both were unanimously voted into the positions following recent board resignations.

The board also discussed planting flowers in pots downtown.

Currently, flowerpots located in the downtown district are almost all empty except for those being filled by local businesses.

The Main Street board is trying to coordinate filling those pots.

Chamber Director Meri Ann Rush said she has talked to Britton Van Heule about getting leftover flowers from the FFA Students, but she is still in the process of working that out.

Also, Shurie Scheel said she plans to reach out to Jeff Dittmer at the state park about possibly getting some of the parks leftover flowers.

The board also discussed moving the date of this year's Oktobrewfest.

Currently, the event is scheduled for September 26.

When the date was set, no one on the board realized that date is the same chosen by the Great American Beer

Festival in Denver, which some members pointed out is the largest brew fest in the United States.

Despite the overwhelming competition in Colorado, board members decided it would be unwise to move the event now.

"We're already doing advertising; we've already done advertising," Rush said.

Additionally three microbreweries have already signed up to do the event in downtown Thermopolis. Moving the date of the event could cause strategic problems when bringing in those businesses.

The Main Street group also celebrated winning an award from the Wyoming Main Street organization. According to members, the award was recognition for the group's hard work, as well as their ability to immediately hit the ground running as a group even before they were accepted as an affiliate community group.

The board also held a strategic planning session after the meeting where they discussed plans for what they want to achieve in the next year, the next five years and 10 to 20 years from now.

The next Main Street Thermopolis meeting will be June 25.