by Trish Rudder
At the April 15 Town of Bath council meeting, the town’s Bath Development Authority (BDA) committee vice president Bill Clark informed the council members by letter that its BDA members will resign on June 30 and asked the council to suspend its operations.
The Town of Bath council then voted to suspend the BDA operations until further notice.
Town Recorder Susan Webster, a BDA member, said the letter from vice president Clark recommended the BDA be suspended for the time being.
Clark wrote that “it is our belief that the BDA, in its current form, has reached the end of its current mission and that it is time for a new direction.”
The town has been interested in the OnTrac “Mainstreet” program and has been meeting with the BDA committee since December.
Instead of using revitalization techniques for the town’s growth through the BDA, the OnTrac program meetings have sparked a new interest as an economic development tool that is driven by the community, said Bath town clerk Breauna Farris, the town’s OnTrac executive director.
Webster said the OnTrac program that is a state supported organization would instead be the focus of revitalization for the Town of Bath.
Since the BDA resignations and discussion were not on the April 15 agenda, the council will take BDA’s future up in the next town council meeting.
