BATH — In spite of changing faces and priorities, big things are afoot in Bath.

“We are at a time of significant transition,” Will Neilson, president of the Main Street Bath board of directors, said at the group’s annual meeting Monday evening. “That is always a little bit uncomfortable.”

For Main Street Bath, a nonprofit that works to promote and preserve the city’s downtown identity, those transitions bring some uncertainty, but also promise new opportunities.

This past year has been more tumultuous than most for the small nonprofit and the city it works alongside.

For most of Main Street Bath’s existence, it’s only had to deal with one city manager: Bill Giroux. Giroux served as Bath’s city manager for 11 years before abruptly retiring last summer. Public Works Director Peter Owen was quickly named interim city manager was later hired as Giroux’s permanent replacement.

From her longtime involvement with Main Street Bath, City Council Chair and Interim Director of Main Street Bath Mari Eosco knew how important it would be for the new city manager to develop a healthy relationship with the Bath business community, something that could only be fostered through face-to-face conversations.

“Long story short, I ended up dragging him to the businesses and saying, ‘This is your new city manager,’” said Eosco. “But we had so much fun walking around and hearing the businesses talk that we extended that, and we have visited businesses throughout the city, and we’ve visited the nonprofits, and it’s been such an eye-opening and reassuring experience.”

While Main Street Bath was working to develop a relationship with the new face of Bath’s municipal government, the organization was also undergoing its own transition.

Over the past year, the organization has been gathering input from the community to create a vision statement for the development of the downtown. That vision statement, which was released this summer, will help guide the nearly two-decade-old organization’s strategy moving forward.

It also will help them find a new director. Former director Jake Korb left the position just over a year ago, and Eosco has filled in as the interim director since then. Eosco is familiar with the position — she served as the organization’s first president and has served as interim director multiple times since. Eosco expressed her interest in letting someone else take the reins Monday evening, and Neilson said that the search was underway.

In the past year, Main Street Bath has navigated transitions in government and transitions within its own organization. They’ve also been faced with a transition in property ownership that could have major repercussion in Bath’s idyllic downtown.

“For the first time in generations, we have buildings for sale in our downtown,” said Eosco.

Eosco was referring to the recent decision of Sagadahock Real Estate Association, a company which for decades owned a majority of the property in Bath’s downtown, to sell off its property assets.

“I don’t know if anyone really realizes the impact that Sagadahock Real Estate has had on this community. They were able to have our downtown remain a special little downtown because of the choices that they made over these generations,” said Eosco.

The company has always been selective about what businesses it allows to operate in the downtown, always working to preserve the character of the area and keep the focus on retail. Since the company owned the buildings outright, it was also able to keep some rents artificially low to help out smaller businesses.

“There’s some uncertainty, but I think one of the things we can be certain about is that we will support each other through these transitions,” said Eosco.

“There’s something going on in this city that is so special, that can’t just be replicated,” she added. “And we’ve got this spark. We’ve got a spark that communities all over this country could only wish to have.”
nstrout@timesrecord.com