Hamlet citizens and city officials met to envision their community’s future with representatives from the North Carolina Main Street Program Tuesday night.

Jeff Smart, mayor of Hamlet, called the meeting to order with a few remarks on the city’s past, present and future progress with the main street program.

“We’ve seen some changes downtown over the past couple of months,” said Smart. “The city is hoping that if we take care of our part then it will make it easier for the business owners to, little by little, do their part.

“I know these are tough times, but I am hopeful.”

According to Smart, the City has budgeted $20,000 for a streetscape plan, which includes, among other things, the amount that will be spent to replace the trees that were removed from Main Street last month.

Smart described the tree issue as both a “hot topic around town,” and a “difficult decision for the council and myself,” but added that the main street program and the council are moving forward.

The Seaboard Festival already donated $2,500 toward the streetscape fund; Smart also suggested that the city may provide a 50/50 fund-matching deal, complete with commemorative plaques, for business owners and citizen groups that make streetscape contributions.

Before attendants divided up into teams. Guest speaker Jeff Adolphsen, a restoration specialist with the State Historic Preservation Office, gave a short lecture on Federal and State Historic Preservation Tax Credits.

According to Adolphsen, Hamlet has the potential to beef up its existing historic commercial areas and certify historic residential areas with guidance from the government - and combined tax credits of up to 40 percent for income-producing properties; 30 percent for non income-producing properties.

“There are a lot of great historic houses here. I could see getting at least one historic neighborhood out of Hamlet right now,” said Adolphsen, adding that all interested property owners could contact his office at (919) 807-6572.

Adolphsen’s work as board chairman of the Wake Forest Downtown Revitalization Corporation started off one team’s discussion when the meeting broke up into groups - design, marketing and economic development.

The design team began by outlining one of their ultimate goals: The visual unification of downtown, beginning with Main Street and extending to Front Street and Hamlet Avenue. The issue of storm water runoff must be dealt with both immediately and long-term before a complete solution to the problem can be realized.

Citizens and business owners agreed that the handicapped access at the top of Main Street leads to a strong downhill flow of rainwater, posing problems for the customers, who must park their cars and navigate the flooded curbs and sidewalks to do their shopping.

City zoning official Gail Strickland agreed to contact the Department of Transportation to see if it would be possible to relocate the ramp while still adhering to code requirements.

In the meantime, the design team agreed to consider options for tree bed replacements by first filling in four of the worst beds on Main Street with pavers and concrete stones - and getting a locally-owned company, Unique Stone, to install different options. Four beds will be chosen from those that are currently filled with light poles.

The design team started out in favor of planters and benches, but Adolphsen re-directed the discussion to include research of the city’s past streetscapes. Ideas broadened once again to include trees as a possibility. However, no decision will be made until the issue of storm water has been addressed in some manner, and the aforementioned four bed options have been put into place. According to Strickland, this process will begin immediately.

The economic development team went over the implementation of the plans that it has developed for business recruitment, retention and expansion — as well as a market study.

According to J. Richard Garrett, vice president of Continuing Education at Richmond Community College, the marketing team is “kicking around some good ideas.”

“We’re looking at what will catch people’s eye,” said Garrett. “We’re looking at ways to celebrate the assets, history and people who have come out of Hamlet.

“We want to bring people downtown so we can show the community pride that we have.”