Easton EDC quarterly update provided to Town Council

EASTON — Foot traffic at the Easton Visitor Center on South Harrison Street is increasing, according to Holly DeKarske, executive director of the Easton Economic Development Corporation.

DeKarske presented a quarterly update on Easton EDC during Monday’s Easton Town Council meeting.

“We just finished a year of managing the visitor’s center, and foot traffic’s basically doubled each month,” DeKarske said.

DeKarske noted that there’s been a rise in downtown foot traffic in recent months as well. “It was kind of a rough start to the spring, but it has gotten a lot better,” she said.

The corporation strives to preserve historic Easton, as well as develop underutilized parts of the downtown. DeKarske discussed the organization’s efforts in improving the visitor center, which includes procuring quotes for new outside signage and providing an interior that follows Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility requirements.

Ward 1 Councilmember Maureen Curry asked if there was a holdup in the town’s work on redesigning the interior of the visitor center.

“There was a design, we are now tweaking, changing the design slightly,” Mayor Megan Cook said. “Yes, there had been a holdup.”

DeKarske noted other updates, such as welcoming Tom Maglio as marketing and events manager in July, updating the website and continuing to market towards the Spanish-speaking community.

She presented a breakdown of the corporation’s funding sources for the 2024 calendar year. 65.4% of funding comes from the Town of Easton, 22.1% comes from grants and 12.5% comes from sponsorships.

Fiscal year 2025 grant funding for the Easton Economic Development Corporation includes, but is not limited to, $300,000 in Project Restore funds and $25,000 in Main Street Improvement Program funds, both from the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development.

The latter goes toward marketing, DeKarske said, while the former was awarded to two downtown projects earlier this summer: a Dover Station project to revitalize a former roofing supply center on Dover Street and Dock Street Foundation’s project to install a museum and visitor center centered around Frederick Douglass.