Main Street Thermopolis presents quarterly report

Suzanne Samelson, President of Main Street Thermopolis, and her husband Howie, board member, presented their quarterly report to both the Hot Springs County Commissioners and to the Thermopolis Town Council on June 20 at their respective meetings.

Howie started their report by discussing their attendance at the conference in Boston, the Best Practices Tour, which featured four Main Street communities: Biddeford, Brunswick, Bath, and Lisbon in Maine.

Howie said, “Each community running with populations running from 9,000 to 22,000 showed off what their Main Street organizations had accomplished and presented new ideas that might be applicable here in Thermopolis if properly scaled.”

Howie continued and said, “Ideas ranged from unique funding opportunities for an organization to acquiring underutilized or abandoned properties, to other special event ideas and dealing with what might look like competitive organizations. We are still digesting what we learned. In a way, the most important lesson for us here in Thermopolis, and it seems to be relatively unique, is the level of cooperation between Main Street and the Chamber of Commerce. There was a lot of discussion about friction between similar organizations and, something we should be proud of, the Maine organizations were very impressed or amazed with the way Main Street and the Chamber cooperate here. There was equal amazement about what we accomplish as an all-volunteer organization without any dedicated funding. Thank you for hearing about how Thermopolis stands out on a national level. I think we have some bragging rights.”

Suzanne Samelson also reported that they held the Thermopolis Brewfest fundraiser, which was on June 3. Samelson said, “The event is our main fundraiser, and it attracts people from the Big Horn Basin and beyond. This year’s event was a success and we are already starting on plans for 2024.”

Suzanne added they performed their Spring Clean Up in mid-May, which they timed to the Town clean-up. A group of about nine volunteers swept out gutters, pulled weeds, pruned some trees, and cleaned out planters on Broadway, Fifth Street, and Arapahoe.

Their last update was in March 2021 and further reports were delayed due to the time of the pandemic, Suzanne said regarding their attendance at the Best Practices Tour in Maine.

Suzanne said, “We both then attended the Main Street Now conference in Boston in late March. Lots of great sessions, ideas, and informal discussions with other Main Streeters, both from Wyoming and other states. As Howie stated about the town visits, there were many ideas shared which planted seeds for what we can do here on an appropriate scale for our town and county.”

Suzanne added, “We continued to assist building owners with their applications to the Façade Improvement Grant program offered by National Main Street in conjunction with the National Park Service. The pilot program provided grants for façade improvements in twelve rural Main Street communities nationally. Thermopolis, Laramie, and Rock Springs were selected to participate. The Mason’s Malta Lodge was awarded a grant and has completed their façade upgrade, with plans for further improvements. We hosted the Wyoming Main Street Advisory Board’s quarterly meeting at the Lodge in mid-May.”

Additionally, Suzanne said, “We worked with Brian Beadles, from the Wyoming State Preservation Office (SHPO) to expand Thermopolis’ Registered Historic District to coincide with the Main Street Thermopolis Historic Downtown District.  This will facilitate eligibility for certain grant opportunities. Both this and the Façade Grant applications were completed thanks to the hard work of board member Meri Ann Dorman.”

Main Street Thermopolis also hosted a late-night shopping monthly event on the second Saturday for about a year—“Great Until 8!”. According to Suzanne, they are revisiting the program to determine how best to maximize participation by both the businesses and the participants.

Suzanne also said that Main Street Thermopolis has many other visible activities, beautification, and behind-the-scenes efforts. They include Banners in Bicentennial Park, which are changed seasonally, Summer Movie Nights; Placemaking/Decorative Lighting, which has added a vibrancy to the look of downtown; the Downtown Clean Up: Spring and fall; a downtown Mural: Plans are underway for this; Farmers Market:  to promote what Main Street Thermopolis does and to recruit volunteers; and Social Media:  Working to maintain a presence to increase understanding of MST and public engagement; and Shop Small Promotion starting November 25, 2023.