BID is small investment in our common interest

A clean, attractive, safe and commercially vibrant downtown.

Probably everyone who comes into downtown Sandpoint — residents, consumers, tourists, businesses — can agree they want that.

The question is, how do we achieve it? Will it happen by itself, or do we need to work toward it intentionally, as a community?

For me, that’s at the heart of the petition drive to dissolve the Business Improvement District encompassing downtown Sandpoint. Dissolving the BID will effectively end the Downtown Sandpoint Business Association, the nonprofit organization that utilizes money from the BID for downtown beautification, parking enhancement, staging events, promoting trade and advocating for business interests.

The BID, created in 2000, is a taxing district where the city levies an assessment on businesses based on square footage. Smaller businesses pay only $10-$20 a month — in fact, 68 percent of all the businesses pay at that rate. The maximum is $65, for businesses over 5000 square feet. Those assessments provide a budget of about $104,000 per year.

The DSBA is a separate entity- a 501(c)6 nonprofit corporation that the city contracts to manage the BID.

DSBA has nine volunteer members on its Board of Directors and one full-time employee, the downtown manager. Her $35,000 salary provides for the hands-on time needed to put on and promote events, oversee beautification projects and attend council or committee meetings. Meantime, volunteers annually contribute thousands of hours of unpaid time. DSBA effectively leverages many hours of volunteer time for every hour paid to staff.

For that, DSBA gets much done. Its beautification projects include the summer flower basket program and downtown lighting for Christmas, the new bike racks around town and new information kiosk at the city parking lot. It stages annual clean-up initiatives like Shake Out the Sand. To promote business and bring people downtown, DSBA sponsors events — Winter Carnival, Oktoberfest, Hometown Holidays and others — and conducts campaigns to advertise them and the downtown overall.

Maybe its most important role is in providing a voice for downtown business interests. DSBA represents the downtown at city of Sandpoint meetings and committees — on everything from sidewalks, lights, parking, pedestrian safety, signage, public art and parks to major planning and zoning issues.

The petitioners say all these functions can be carried out by a “voluntary” organization. We’ve tried that: Two predecessors — the Central Business Association in the 1980s and Sandpoint Business Association in the late ‘90s — did not survive as donation-only organizations.

With no budget for projects or staff, they were not viable. That’s why 10 years ago the downtown businesses passed the original petition to create the BID.

More on these points, and a rebuttal to various claims by the petitioners, is available at www.downtownsandpoint.com. Or, just talk to any board member.

Bottom line, if businesses want an organization to look after their common interests, they’ll have to provide some resources. The BID does that. It’s a small investment to help make our downtown a clean, attractive and vibrant place to do business.

CHRIS BESSLER

President, Downtown Sandpoint

Business Association