SACO — Saco Main Street (formerly known as Saco Spirit) is in a transitional period, and officials are working on how to move forward to best meet the needs of a changing city.

The local economic development group’s executive director left this summer and the group is currently without a president.

Kate Brown, part-time summer associate in the city’s planning and economic development, is filling in as Saco Main Street’s director through the end of the month, upon which she will go to Massachusetts to attend graduate school.

“Kate’s very organized,” said City Economic Development Director William Mann.

Brown is working on projects to help the organization into the future. For example, both vendors and visitors at the recent art show were surveyed regarding their thoughts on the event, which is information organizers can use when preparing for the event next year, she said.

She is also developing a calendar detailing seasonal events and the needs of businesses throughout the year.

Brown has been doing some groundwork on how to better collaborate with local businesses, including installing “pop-up parks” at the recent art festival by putting up picnic tables with trivia cards in front of local businesses that not only gave people a place to sit down and relax, but routed them toward local businesses, she said.

Brown said she loves the small town feel of Saco. She said she’s sad to be leaving at the end of the summer but hopes she can start some initiatives that will continue when she’s gone.

“I think Main Street is gorgeous,” she said, noting the flowers that former Saco Spirit President Johanna Hoffman maintains. “I think the people are great,” she said.

Mann said Saco Main Street is going to use this opportunity of transition to thoughtfully see what the needs of the downtown are and what partnerships the group can make to best serve the community.

Downtown wine and sandwich shop and property owner Mark Johnston said downtowns, like businesses, go through different stages of growth, and have to reinvent themselves periodically to keep in tune with the times.

Johnston said that Saco is the fastest growing city in Maine.

“I’m looking forward to new growth ”¦ a rebirth of the downtown, said Johnston. He said in recent years, he had trouble keeping tenants, but in the last six months has rented out space to young people he hopes will bring a new energy to the downtown.

Saco Main Street member and downtown insurance agent Peg Poulin said the organization should review the results of the city’s recent visioning effort, Bridge:2025, to determine the desire of the community so it can move forward in the right direction.

“The report is invaluable,” she said. Poulin said Saco Main Street was mentioned a number of times in the Bridge:2025 report, and Saco Main Street needs to determine what ways people think it’s an asset to the city.

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 325 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.