Upland event off

Main Street Upland was formed in 1990 to help promote businesses downtown. The organization was in charge of several annual events such as the Lemon Festival, Scary-A-Faire and the Christmas parade, which are all expected to continue.

Main Street had to close as a result of poor management and a growing debt, said Brenda Sohm, owner of I Remember When in downtown.

Sohm's business shut down Tuesday.

"My sales were down 70 percent on Thursday nights," she said. "They're supposed to promote business. The new board did absolutely nothing for eight months."

Sohm was a member of the Main Street board of directors up until a couple months ago. She said she quit due to her frustration with other board members.

While on the board, Sohm said, she came up with debt reduction plans but could not get anyone to review them.

Mayor John Pomierski said he noticed a lack of organization at some of Main Street's meetings.

Main Street can't continue because of its inability to make a profit or be organized in the past three or four years, Pomierski said.

"How that turns out in the next three, four, six months is to be determined and the interested vendors that are truly interested in the better well-being of downtown are working very closely with city staff," he said. "We're listening to their ideas. We're listening to their input."

If Main Street does not pull itself back into shape, the city will continue its planned revitalization efforts in downtown, officials said.

A downtown specific plan is nearly finished and will set guidelines and goals for future development of downtown.

The city has an agreement with Main Street that allows the city to allocate up to $30,000 in parking and business improvement district funds, said Jeff Zwack, redevelopment director.

This year, the Main Street board was tied up with organizational issues and did not approve the funds, he said.

The funding would be used to promote downtown businesses and upkeep of downtown.

"So the city is now taking care of street sweeping and cleaning the sidewalks and maintaining landscaping and parking lots to make sure that it gets done, and it's not going to be ignored," Zwack said.

Pomierski is hoping for a new farmers market, possibly on Saturdays, that will hold true to traditional farmers markets in the region by offering more produce rather than crafts.

"If and when another farmers market cropped up it would be a lot more efficient," he said. "It will start out a lot smaller and and be a lot more geared toward what is meant to be a farmers market."

But until then, Sandy Burkhart, owner of Carriage House Antiques & Collectibles and a Main Street board member, will miss the Thursday night markets.

"It's been slow but the farmers market has just been a great way for people to have a form of entertainment, a cheap form of entertainment, and it's very, very sad," she said.

"I'm just so used to tons of people coming in and laughing and talking and enjoying themselves and the worst part of all this is they don't know, so they'll be coming down and there's not going to be one."