Houlton to host annual Maine Downtown Conference today

HOULTON – The population of the downtown will blossom today, when more than 140 people are expected to flock to Market Square for the seventh annual Maine Downtown Conference.

The conference, organized by the Maine Downtown Center, will be held in several locations throughout Market Square today.

By early Thursday afternoon, 140 people were registered for the conference, said MDC Program Director Lori Allen. Conference organizers also plan to accept walk-in registrations before the start of the event.

“This is fabulous,” said Allen, speaking from her cell phone as she traveled to Houlton on Thursday afternoon. “This is a large number of registrants. It has surpassed our expectations.”

A program of the Maine Development Foundation, the Maine Downtown Center aims to revitalize downtowns throughout the state, and the conference is just one of the tools that the organization employs to accomplish its mission.

This will be the first time the conference has been held in Aroostook County. Previous conferences have been held in Waterville, Bath, Auburn, Bangor, Saco and Belfast.

The event, titled “Small Town Success,” will offer several workshops related to downtown revitalization.

Participants will have the opportunity to attend a number of seminars and breakout sessions that focus on topics such as “Developing Downtown Farmers Markets,” “REALIZE! Maine: Energizing 20- to 40-Year-Olds in the Community” and “Cultural Tourism.”

The keynote speaker at the Houlton conference will be Kennedy Smith, lauded by MDC officials as “one of the nation’s foremost experts on commercial district revitalization and main street economics.”

Smith, who served for 13 years as director of the National Trust Main Street Center, has been active in downtown development for 25 years and has garnered numerous awards.

In 2004, she co-founded the Community Land Use and Economics Group, a consulting firm that helps civic leaders develop innovative downtown economic development strategies.

For the past few weeks, public works crews have been busy in Houlton, sprucing up Market Square and the rest of town for the event.

Municipal streets have been swept of winter’s dust and grime, landscaping improvements have been made and new banners have been placed on lamp posts throughout the downtown.

Richard Rhoda, a local attorney and historian, will be host to historic walking tours, once in the morning and again after lunch.

Registration for the conference kicks off at 8:30 a.m. in the lobby of the Temple Theatre. The event adjourns at 5:30 p.m.