SKOWHEGAN — The Farmington Downtown Association was recognized during part of a Vital Maine Communities Conference held Friday in Skowhegan.

The local association was presented the Downtown Achievement Award for an Outstanding Maine Downtown Network Community.

During the conference, presented by Maine Development Foundation/Maine Downtown Center in partnership with Maine Preservation, 160 downtown revitalization leaders welcomed six new communities to the Maine Downtown Center’s growing family of commercial centers seeking revitalization.

The Farmington Downtown Association was recognized with the award for utilizing the Downtown Network program to actively engage and organize community leaders into four committees.

The committees, Organization, Design, Promotions and Economic Restructuring, meet monthly as does the executive committee and the full board. The executive committee is comprised of the officers and committee chairs.

The Organization Committee has worked on consumer intercept surveys and parking surveys with Craig Freshly. The results were just presented this week. They have also worked to organize membership lists and recruit members.

The Promotions Committee has focused on creating inexpensive, fun events for children and adults to bring people into the downtown.

The Design Committee, chaired by Town Manager Richard Davis, is working on streetscape improvements to Meetinghouse Park. Last summer, the committee had hanging planters made for all lamp posts for summer flowers and over the Christmas holidays they were filled with greens. They also recently hosted a session for merchants with downtown consultant Linda Edgerton who provided suggestions for improvements to their window displays.

The Economic Restructuring Committee has produced a guide to doing business in downtown Farmington, an occupancy analysis of downtown and they expect to have a marketing plan to present to the downtown association this month.

This committee also worked with the Franklin County Tourism Network to participate in a FAM Tour of Maine for 17 bus operators. The stop in Farmington was two hours this past April and was very successful, according to committee Chairwoman Alison Hagerstrom.

“There is lots of energy here … more than I have seen in a long time!” Hagerstrom said.

Janice Maxham, president of the Farmington Downtown Association, and Michael Mansir, immediate past president, accepted the award presented by  Jon Edgerton, Vice President of Wright Pierce and Co-Chair of the Maine Downtown Center’s Advisory Council.