Lazaro Aleman
ECB Publishing, Inc.
When the Jefferson County Commission recently recognized an organization calling itself Monticello Historic Main Street and decided to give it a $4,000 contribution, it unintentionally offended another group.
Main Street Monticello, which has been around since 2005, took issue with both the implication that it was no longer viable and the redirection to a new organization of the $4,000 that it has typically received from the county.
“We are not defunct,” Brenda Sorensen, treasurer of the older group, told the News last week. “We are very much viable.”
It was the same message that Amy McDaniel, past executive director of Main Street Monticello, conveyed to the commission via a letter dated Oct. 7, 2021, “to help clear up any confusion.”
“We are still a viable and active organization with by-laws, event plans and future goals,” McDaniel wrote, citing a membership of at least 11 people.
McDaniel went to say that due to the pandemic, the group had curtailed its board meetings and many of its activities for the time being, but it had never dissolved, notwithstanding what others might have represented.
“Our record of accomplishments speaks for itself and we respectfully request that the Board of County Commissioners grant us our mini grant of $4,000,” McDaniel wrote.
She then went on to list her group’s accomplishments since its formation, a list that comprised nearly two pages and included innumerable events, from promoting a social media campaign for local businesses and events, to planning and executing numerous community events and administering two state grants for a historical structures survey.
Commissioners at the board meeting on Thursday evening, Oct. 7, apologized and readily acknowledged their error, variously calling the entire affair “a mix-up,” “a comedy of error,” and “the perfect storm.”
Rather than splitting the contribution Solomon-like, however, the board instead chose to double it, allocating $4,000 to Main Street Monticello and another $4,000 to Monticello Historic Main Street.
The commission also instructed County Coordinator Parrish Barwick to research any previous lease agreements on the old jail building and report his findings to the board. The issue arose because the new group, Monticello Historic Main Street, wants to use the building as its home office, whereas the original Main Street Monticello is credited with the building’s renovation and its conversion into a museum.
The commissioners wanted to make sure that they didn’t inadvertently step on any more toes by granting the new organization a lease on the building when the older group already had a claim to it.
Don Burdick, the executive director of the new group, which incorporated with the state as nonprofit in July 2021, clarified his group’s mission and vision to the commission.
Burdick said he didn’t see a real difference between the two groups, underscoring that his group was focused on the town’s history and capitalizing on this history to generate interest and attract visitors. Amusement parks and historic tours were two ways of attracting visitors and generating money, Burdick said. And Monticello, he said, was rich in history.
His dream, Burdick said, was to create a historic campus that encompassed the A-Building, Chamber of Commerce, and old jail by the town’s bicentennial celebration in 2027. Monticello’s ancestors, he said, deserved to be recognized.
Burdick asked that his group be given a lease to the old jail building, saying that it was practically abandoned at present.
Monticello Main Street would still be able to conduct tours of the jail, he said. But his group having an office in the building would both better maintain the building and secure its contents, he said.
His group’s goal, Burdick said, was eventually to refurbish the old jail, install period furniture in the interior and give it the proper décor, including framed photographs of all of Jefferson County’s past sheriffs.