Business Owners Discuss Main Street's Future

While Reisterstown’s Main Street Committee is keeping its focus on earning the town Maryland’s Main Street designation, the group wants to improve the town through any means.

“We need all the ideas we can get from everyone in town,” said Calvin Reter, a member of the committee and the Reisterstown Improvement Association (RIA).

The Main Street Committee held a breakfast meeting with business and property owners at Bubb’s Deli on Tuesday morning. The meeting, which was attended by about 35 people, allowed the committee to give an overview of the program and its progress and served as a forum for business owners to share ideas and talk about challenges.

The committee has been meeting every Monday morning at Reter’s Crab House to work on earning the designation, which would bring benefits like on-site visits and design assistance from the state, training on commercial revitalization, education about grants and loans in addition to increased visibility. Five required subcommittees—organization, design, promotion, economic restructuring and clean, safe and green—have recently starting meeting as well.

Meeting attendees suggested a variety of ways to improve Main Street, including more handicapped accessibility, more networking, business-to-business mentoring, consistent retail hours and better property upkeep.

Baltimore County Councilwoman Vicki Almond suggested hiring high school students, church groups and interns as ways to increase manpower in retail shops. Tony Baysmore, special assistant to Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz, also attended the meeting.

A Main Street kickoff meeting open to the public will be held March 7 at 6:30 p.m. at Trinity Lutheran Church, 109 Main Street.

The Main Street Committee meets every Monday morning at 10 a.m. at Reter’s Crab House.