Westminster Eagle Main St Minute Westminster Mayoral Candidate Interviews
Main Street Minute
04/13/05
Randi Buergenthal and Missie Wilcox
On May 9, Westminster will elect its mayor. We recently sat down with the two candidates who had declared as of last week to learn about their specific vision for Main Street and business district in Westminster. (Note: A third candidate, Kevin Jay Alt, declared on Monday, too late for this edition.)
Q: What can you do for Downtown Westminster?
Kevin Dayhoff: I will continue to stay involved, engaged, visible and accessible in order to gather and analyze progress and challenges.
By being a good listener, I can help facilitate making things happen and bringing folks together to find creative solutions and empower downtown businesses and residents to maintain an ownership stake in our community and future.
As a collage artist, I take different media to create a masterpiece; I liken this skill to addressing the diverse needs of the city to solve problems. We need to play upon our strengths - family-owned businesses with personal service, and bring even more people downtown.
Tom Ferguson: A healthy business environment in downtown Westminster adds vibrancy and life, and is an essential element in the overall fabric of our community. While elected officials must be concerned with the needs of all areas of the City, I believe it is appropriate and necessary to do all we can to ensure the continued viability of downtown.
I plan to continue doing what I have done for years, which is to listen to the downtown business community and make certain that government is not creating impediments that make it more difficult for businesses to succeed.
I have worked with the city staff, the police department, and a group of downtown merchants to craft new parking policies, which successfully addressed the chronic complaint of inadequate curbside parking in the central business district.
In connection with the merger between Mason-Dixon Bancshares Inc. and BB&T Corporation, I was instrumental in securing a donation to the city of $2.25 million in cash, plus the real estate formerly known as the Farmers Supply property.
That donation provided for the complete removal of what had been a blighted property and paved the way for the development of Market Square and the adjacent Market Square parking garage. This garage and the new Longwell parking garage added about 500 additional parking spaces in the central business district.
Q: How will you partner with merchants and those who live downtown?
TF: In the early 1990s, along with a small group of other business leaders, I saw the need for a private organization that could work with the city to enhance the business climate in Westminster, particularly downtown. In partnership with the city, we formed the nonprofit Greater Westminster Development Corporation, primarily as a means to provide local merchants a venue to discuss issues and concerns unique to downtown and to make recommendations to the mayor and City Council.
I served as the first chairman of GWDC and continue my involvement to this day as a member of the board of directors. The GWDC has played a key role as an advisor and sounding board for the City and is an example of bringing the private and public sectors together for the betterment of our City and its business community.
I also serve on the board of directors of Westminster Town Center Corporation, which is another nonprofit corporation formed in partnership with the city. Its early focus was the redevelopment of the old stone building situated on the former Farmers Supply property. That project is now nearly complete with a planned spring 2005 opening of a unique Irish style pub and restaurant being developed by local restaurateur David Johansson.
KD: For several years, I was a dues-paying member of the Westminster Business Association. I will continue to attend meetings of the Greater Westminster Development Committee and the Downtown Promotions Committee.
I will also be available to our citizens to discuss new information and opportunities. I will continue to work hard to see that Westminster continues to match businesses with state and federal funding programs, which have a good fit with Downtown Westminster.
Q: What do you think is the largest issue facing downtown?
KD: Now that we have built the two parking decks downtown, we need to move forward with turning our surplus surface parking lots into retail space that will bring even more folks into town.
I believe that the business footprint of Westminster is too small.
We've been working hard to expand downtown on an east-west basis along Main Street, and I am excited about the Route 27 Corridor Plan, which will extend downtown business north.
This will be completed via land use, and there is ample opportunity to develop commercial and retail space in that corridor.
It is important that we expand our downtown character out, instead of having the big businesses and the national chains encroaching in.
TF: Clearly, a business operating in a downtown setting can have a tough time competing with the big box stores and the mall, but it can be done.
Convenient hours, attractive and unique, products and services delivered with a personal and friendly touch can go a long way toward attracting and keeping customers. Additionally, I think more diversification in the types of businesses operating
Downtown is desirable. But above all, I think the greatest risk is the risk of merchants and business owners not working together as a team. Our downtown is not like a mall or shopping center where the hours and mode of operation are standardized, but rather made up of entrepreneurs doing their best to make a go of it.
They are independent minded, which is why they have chosen to be downtown rather than in a shopping center. Once everyone recognizes that we can work together to promote downtown, we will all benefit from increased business, shopping, and downtown venues.
Q: What is the most positive thing about downtown Westminster?
TF: Downtown Westminster is a wonderful place. The splendid architecture, the tree lined streets, and the sense of community one feels when strolling around town are all reminiscent of an earlier time. As locals, we sometimes don't fully appreciate what we have here.
However, when I come across someone who is visiting for the first time the reaction is universally the same: "What a beautiful town this is!" This is a strength that cannot be duplicated in a mall or in a shopping center. Another positive thing about downtown is the revitalization progress we have made over the last decade or so, placing us in a much better position today.
KD: Westminster's historic downtown is one of the most beautiful areas in the mid-Atlantic region. We have great shopkeepers, restaurants, business owners and civic-minded citizens. We have a whole new generation of folks who are willing to build on the positive work of leaders who have gone before us and are willing to roll up their sleeves and say, "let's do it."
It's important that we capitalize on our strength of family-owned, customer-service oriented and artist-based businesses.
Westminster has one of the best concentrations of artists in the mid-Atlantic region, and we've only scratched the surface of tapping this resource.
Q: How can we bring more people to Main Street?
KD: We must continue to analyze customer data and intelligently market our historical and beautiful downtown. I would like to see more public events such as our highly successful Fallfest celebration.
For example, we have recently begun the planning to bring back the Christmas parade.
It is important that we continue an emphasis on developing our Gateways and better uniform signage. I would also like to explore more utilization of public art.
Additional ideas include a downtown Westminster Web site, a series of print ads describing downtown Westminster as a great place to do business, and a survey of young families to understand their current shopping habits.
More community employment would also be a big help. We need to continue to expand our community employment base so that many of the moms and dads who are currently spending 15 hours a week commuting can instead spend that time with their families, and in Westminster.
Opportunities multiply as they are seized. Since I have been mayor, the City of Westminster has successfully undergone profound changes and faced a number of daunting challenges. I enjoy working with my colleagues in Westminster's administration and thoroughly enjoy spending time with Westminster citizens, students, community groups, the faith community, and businesses.
Let the progress continue.
TF: The more people who work and live in the downtown area, or at least close by, the better the chance we have that they will spend some of their disposable income in our downtown stores and restaurants. We must look for creative ways to attract what I call the "urban pioneers" - people who really like the idea of living where they work, and particularly like living near the central business district.
A prime example of this is the Market Square project, which is a multi-story, mixed-use development comprised of retail space, office space, and residential condominiums.
I believe most of the condominiums are sold, and I don't think it will be long before we start to see some of the retail and office space being occupied.
More people living and working here means more pocketbooks with disposable income, which means more opportunity for the savvy downtown merchant.
Ferguson File
Tom Ferguson grew up in Westminster and has experience that ranges from service in the U.S. Air Force to a 40-year career in banking, including serving as the president and chief executive officer of Carroll County Bank and Trust Company and Mason-Dixon Bancshares Inc. He was the bank's executive vice president for community development until his retirement in mid-2004.
He continues to serve on the Board of Directors of Branch Banking & Trust Co. of North Carolina, the largest bank subsidiary of BB&T Corporation.
He is also a Westminster Common Council member, a position he has held since 2001.
Dayhoff Data
Kevin Dayhoff is a Westminster native who has experience in public service and government.
He has served on a variety of government boards and commissions since 1980.
Mayor Dayhoff has been an elected official since 1999 as a Westminster Common Council member, and has been the mayor since 2001.
He is a retired, self-employed small businessman, and attended Elon and McDaniel colleges.
He is also an artist, specializing in drawing, writing and mixed media collage.
From 1974 to 1999, he founded and owned a landscape design-build contracting company, where he raised nursery stock on a small farm and performed horticultural and property maintenance consulting.
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