Callista Wilson: Downtown TIF has produced lights but very little action

To The Daily Sun,

Last year, the Downtown TIF Advisory Board and city council approved nearly $30,000 for downtown beautification (Resolution 2025-24). The plan was clear: upgrade rope lights, add GFCI outlets to poles, install a control panel for Canal Street, bring in color-changing LEDs, and expand landscaping. At the time, the Downtown TIF fund balance exceeded $745,000.

A year later, what do residents see? Rope lights. That’s it. Landscaping was supposedly awarded to Belknap Landscape months ago. At the last meeting, Belknap said they would add annuals and mums for the next season — nice, but hardly the kind of lasting improvement taxpayers were promised. Infrastructure upgrades were discussed, but no public record shows they have been delivered. Instead, more TIF money: another $37,000 has already been lined up for Pumpkin Festival barriers, generators, and temporary light towers.

Beautification matters, but so does accountability. If taxpayers are funding projects, residents deserve clear reports on what is completed and what is delayed. Without transparency, it looks like promises are made to justify spending, while downtown gets only incremental, cosmetic changes.

The TIF holds three-quarters of a million dollars. That money should be transforming downtown, not trickling out with little to show. Rope lights and seasonal flowers alone are not revitalization. Where are the GFCI outlets? The Canal Street control panel? The permanent landscaping that was promised?

Laconia needs leadership that ensures follow-through, not just approvals. TIF funds are a powerful tool, but only if they result in real improvements residents can see and use, not just decorations that come and go.

Callista Wilson

Laconia