Newtown Borough Council Lends Its Support To The Newtown Experience

NEWTOWN BOROUGH, PA — The Newtown Borough Council on Wednesday promised its support to the fledgling Newtown Experience and its goal to promote and market the town.

After listening to the plans and objectives of the organization, the councilors said they would consider setting aside funds in its 2024 budget for the group's efforts. They also told the organizers they're "110 percent" behind their effort.

Formed just two years ago, the organization, operating under the auspices of the Newtown Historic Association, stepped in to fill the void left by the Newtown Mercantile Group, which had ceased operations just before the pandemic and left no one to organize the annual town tree lighting.

“It’s been hard through the years gathering together the businesses and events. The Mercantile expunged itself right before the pandemic so we haven’t really had any coordination on State Street at all,” said former councilor Nicole Rodowicz who is now helping to spearhead the new group.

Rodowicz and representatives from the organization attended this week's borough council agenda meeting to secure support before moving forward with plans to separate from the association and form its own nonprofit organization.

“If this is going to be a success we need to stand alone,” said Rodowicz, who is working with Newtown Theatre’s executive director Andy Smith, Ashara Shapiro, the owner of ArtWRKD, and Mayor John Burke to set the new direction for the organization.

Quoting from the group’s mission statement, Rodowicz said the goal of the new nonprofit will be to “celebrate our rich history, build community and further our collective culture.

"The Newtown Experience will support existing events such as Market Day, the Library 5K, the tree lighting, Music on the Street, etc.," she continued. "Through marketing and PR we would help inform the existing community and entice our outside community. We will support tourism and create a vibrant small business and hospitality borough.”

In addition, Rodowicz said the Newtown Experience board would bring new events and experiences to the borough through proposed yearly funding that would also support beautification projects in town. The group would also publish a community calendar.

"We'll have volunteer and possible membership opportunities to support the goals of the Newtown Experience," said Rodowicz. "We would also work closely with the borough council and create a clear dialogue with the community," she said.

“Yardley, Doylestown and New Hope. They all have a group that does this,” said Rodowicz.

"Whether it was the Mercantile group or whoever, businesses were always being asked to do something. Can you stay open late? Can you donate to this? Can you sponsor that? We'd like to flip that narrative," said Smith. "We're here to create an atmosphere that people want to live here, work here, play here. But we're not asking for anything," said Smith.

South State Street in Newtown Borough. (Jeff Werner)

"A lot of the businesses will do specific events around their business to promote it," added
Mayor Burke. "One of the things we're trying to achieve here is to allow all of that to continue to happen, but at the same time have a big umbrella over it to promote it to the entire street. Maybe there will be more incentive to stay open later. Maybe there will be more incentive for an open space to become a retail store. We don't want to see a transition where at night the downtown is dark."

Shapiro said she has collaborated with the Newtown Theatre on a couple of events where patrons first visit her gallery on South State Street and then take in a show or a movie at the Newtown Theatre. Between the events, she and the theatre encourage them to have a drink or have dinner in the borough.

"These are things we need to think about as a collective, which is how do we keep restaurants in the borough, how do we keep nightlife in the borough because there's a lot of competition in the township and we are losing people to that side," she said.