The Historic Park City Alliance has a new Executive Director—who is, in fact, their former Executive Director, Alison Kuhlow.
Kuhlow worked for the Main Street group for six years, and left that job in September of 2016, with her position taken by Michael Barille.
She said the three-year-interlude has been an interesting time of growth and development for her.
“I went and obtained a Master’s Degree from Gonzaga, in Organizational Leadership,” Kuhlow continued. “Worked with a lot of local non-profits on consulting, whether it be management structure to strategic planning. And when this position came open again, I was excited to look at it through a new lens.”
She said that the job is still part-time, with two staffers on hand. But the Alliance is affected by a different economy and new businesses on the street.
One major issue continues to be the Park Silly Market, which has just concluded its season. Kuhlow said she will work with Silly Market organizers Kate McChesney and Michelle McDonald to analyze its impacts and look at possible changes for the event.
“We’ve tried lots of different options,” Kuhlow explained. “Maybe it’s time to try those again. Y’know, it has been probably nine years since we’ve tried some more vibrancy, bringing that up to the top of the street. So let’s try that again. We had done, back in the day, a swap where we had brought it up to the top of the street. I don’t think that was a solution. But again, let’s think outside of the box. I know that Kate and Michelle are out-of-the-box thinkers. And so I’m not afraid that we won’t come up with some new ideas. But, yeah, we have to run those by the merchants and see what they think.”
She said she wants a transparent process that involves the merchants. And she encourages the store owners to work one-on-one with the Market directors.
“It is a question that would be great to ask when someone does mention that they’re not seeing a benefit from it,” Kuhlow said. “You need to ask what they’ve been doing and understand, are there some steps that they can do that’s not super-overwhelming, additional cost, needing additional staff, that can turn this around.”
