CALUMET — A question regarding the status of Main Street Calumet was brought up at the regular November meeting of the Village Council.

At issue is a letter dated May 7, 2014, from the Michigan State Housing Development Authority, signed by Laura Krzov, state coordinator of the Michigan Main Street program.

The letter suggests that Main Street Calumet withdrew from the state program. It goes on to state that as MSC no longer participates in the state program, MSC was instructed that as of June 7, 2014, the MSC program must discontinue use of the Main Street name. It can no longer be used in publications, letterhead and all other relevant materials. Main Street is a trademarked program of the National Trust Main Street Center and only those cities actively engaged with the program may use the name.

“A couple of years ago,” Trustee Virginia Dwyer said, “the DDA contracted with Main Street Calumet for professional services,” adding that the contract did not divulge what the Downtown Development Authority was doing for Main Street.

Dwyer motioned that the village council require the DDA to report to the village manager who will then in turn, report to the council an itemization of the precise services, and the value of each service, that the DDA has received from Main Street Calumet in return for two $10,000 payments. She asked how the village can contract with an organization that is not permitted to operate under the name that is has been using since it was organized in 2003.

Village President Rob Tarvis, who is a nonvoting member of the Main Street Calumet Board, replied that the DDA contracts with a private nonprofit, and any issue involving the name used by that nonprofit is between the Michigan Economic Development Corporation, which oversees the Michigan Main Street Program, and Main Street Calumet. The Village of Calumet has no control over what a private nonprofit calls itself.

Council President Pro tempore Pamela Que said in a Friday interview that based on all the budget information available on monetary contributions provided to the DDA by the village, the village really has no authority in the matter. Contracts between the DDA and MSC is between the DDA and the MEDC.

“That’s their contract together, to do all the promotional work that Main Street Calumet does,” Que said.

Que said that the discovery that MSC has not been permitted to use its name since 2014 gave village council a pause.

“Did anybody know that that was the case? I don’t know that,” said Que.

Que said in discussing the topic with other parties involved, she doesn’t believe it was information that anyone knew, including MSC Executive Director Leah Polzien.

“She was hired for a job, she does the job very well,” Que said, “and I think that the Village of Calumet would be amiss to even take this in a negative manner and give the Main Street Calumet program a black eye.”

If Main Street Calumet has not been a participant of the Michigan Main Street Program over the past decade, it is apparently something the MEDC was not aware of. It was that department that issued the letter in 2014. Nor was the Governor’s Office aware of it.

Earlier this year, The Governor’s Awards for Historic Preservation included Calumet. The website miplace.org includes this from the MEDC:

“Congratulations to Keweenaw Economic Development Alliance (KEDA); Village of Calumet; Calumet Downtown Development Authority (DDA); Main Street Calumet (MSC); Houghton County Land Bank Authority; Keweenaw National Historical Park; and Keweenaw National Historical Park Advisory Commission.”

While no one appears to have been aware the MSC cannot use the name “Main Street,” a simple solution, said Que, is for Main Street Calumet to change is name.

“It’s still a private nonprofit that is doing contractual work for an organization to promote the public events that happen in the village,” Que said. “I feel very strongly that we would be at a great loss if we lost the organization and the promotional work that it does.

“Having said that,” she continued, “if the state has in fact said that MSC cannot use that name, I have told the Executive Director that I would prefer MSC change its name.”

While the nonprofit would continue to do what it has been doing to promote the village, she said, changing its name would avoid the confusion and any conflict involved in using the Main Street name.