A meeting in Wiscasset on Tuesday, Nov. 12, could be the start of a better downtown.

An official from a Maine nonprofit wants to hear what, if any, help residents, business owners, and town officials would like in getting organized to work on economic growth.

The Maine Development Foundation has worked with Damariscotta and Newcastle, Bath, Rockland and other communities.

Tuesday's meeting at Coastal Enterprises, 36 Water St., is set to run from 6 to 8 p.m.

“I don't have any answers. This is an opportunity to listen ... to find out what the citizens of Wiscasset are looking for,” the foundation's senior program director Roxanne Eflin said November 1.

Wiscasset Town Planner Misty Parker called the Main Street Program's approach a proven model for invigorating downtowns. The Main Street program is just one tool that could benefit Wiscasset's historic village ...,” Parker said.

The program can help towns revitalize their commercial districts, but not with quick cash for public improvement projects, according to the foundation's website, at www.mdf.org.

Instead, it's about getting a whole town working together to meet goals and market the town's assets, from community pride to the downtown architecture.

“The Main Street approach ... will not produce wholesale, immediate change. Expensive improvements, such as pedestrian malls constructed with once plentiful public funds, often fail to address the underlying causes of commercial district decline and do not always produce the desired economic results,” the website states.

“... Also, while they may be an important component of an overall plan for downtown revitalization, communities should not confuse substantial public improvement projects for the Main Street program.”

The program calls for volunteers and a paid program director.

An alternative, sister program, the Maine Downtown Network, doesn't require paid staff. That's the one Damariscotta and Newcastle went with.

Because the two towns share their Main Street, they applied together and were designated a network in 2010, said Mary Kate Reny, who chairs the towns' Twin Villages Alliance.

"You know immediately if the heart of town matters to its community members,” Reny said November 4. “It takes local leadership, community involvement and collaboration to produce long-term success. The Twin Villages' Network designation has provided both organization and momentum for (the Alliance).”

Deb Schaffer, owner of DebraElizabeths' on Main Street in Wiscasset, encouraged residents, business owners, town leaders and representatives of clubs and other groups to show up Tuesday.

“It's about community and us as a community working together,” Schaffer said.