Oktobrewfest a success

Rain may have fallen on Oktobrewfest, but it certainly didn’t stop folks from coming down and having a good time according to reports at the Main Street Thermopolis meeting Tuesday night.

Although some of the expenses are still outstanding, estimates are the group made approximately $5,000 from the event this year.

Plenty of beer mugs were sold and only a few t-shirts are still available at the Chamber of Commerce office. The rain kept just five of the pre-arranged vendors from making the trip to Thermopolis for the festivities.

The group also discussed their work with Wayfinding Signs and appear to be somewhat dissatisfied with what they have received from the company so far.

The company was to put together ideas for signage that would be posted coming into town regarding Main Street Thermopolis, however, the committee in charge of the project weren’t “wowed” by any of the designs presented.

Costs are also a concern, finding the prices were much higher than they had initially anticipated. Additionally, they felt there were specifics missing from the presented mock-ups.

One suggestion was to get input from other Main Street Wyoming groups as to what they asked for and how they got the signage they wanted without breaking the bank. Some grant monies may be available to help, so the committee is going to meet and break down the specific needs for Thermopolis and determine a budget before moving forward with the company.

Howie and Suzanne Samelson recently attended “Preserve Wyoming”, taking a tour of both Evanston and Rock Springs to see what some of their preservation projects entailed.

Evanston has done a lot of work with developing their downtown buildings as well as progress on the railroad roundhouse. Rock Springs is working hard on their restorations as well, but the Samelson’s said a lot of the projects these towns are working on are way beyond the scope of work our local group is ready to take on.

The tours did, however, give them plenty of time to chat with some of the 13 other Main Street groups in the state to get ideas and input on projects that they have already tackled.

It may only be the first week of October, but Main Street Thermopolis is already thinking ahead to the Christmas season and the decorations used throughout town.

Thermopolis Town Council does not have any funding set aside to in their budget this year for buying any new decorations, however, MeriAnn Rush found that the company that manufactured some of the current decorations will do refurbishing work in lieu of buying new.

Main Street has funding set aside for decorations, however, the refurbishing could be a good bit cheaper than buying new, allowing them to take care of perhaps one or two decorations rather than only being able to buy a single new one.

Rush is going to check into the refurbishing costs as well as the purchase price of new decorations so the group can make a decision on which way to go.

The next meeting of Main Street Thermopolis will be on Thursday, Nov. 3 to look at strategic planning for the next year or so.