Downtown Berthoud's Fall Calendar Is Now Run by the People Who Own the Storefronts
October 8, 2026
October 8, 2026
"Chicken and egg scenario." That's how Whitney Way, founder and owner of City Star Brewing on Mountain Avenue, put it to Berthoud's town board on May 12, according to the Berthoud Surveyor. Berthoud Main Street needed money to grow downtown. It needed to grow to justify the money. Until that point, the group's work had come from downtown business owners giving their own time.
The scarecrows going up on October 17 are part of how that loop gets broken. This is the first fall and holiday season Berthoud Main Street runs under a signed agreement with the Town of Berthoud. That agreement asks the group to report each year on what it achieved. The events on your weekend calendar between now and December are the record that report will draw on.
Oktoberfest filled Town Park yesterday, October 3, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Here's what's left of the season:
Building a scarecrow was free for downtown businesses and organizations, but the sign-up deadline to make the map and ballot was October 1. The lineup you'll be walking past on October 17 is already set.
None of these events is new. A Very Merry Berthoud starts its second year: the Reporter-Herald covered the first one in December 2025 as a new festival that pulled separate holiday traditions into one day. The Parade of Lights had been running for years before that. Berthoud Main Street also ran a Small Business Saturday page for November 29, 2025. The events haven't changed much. What changed in August is the agreement behind the group running them.
Trustees first backed the idea in principle on May 12. They agreed to put $85,000 a year toward Berthoud Main Street for three years and told staff to draft an agreement for a final vote. The version approved on August 11 was smaller and shorter.
| May 12 direction | August 11 approval | |
|---|---|---|
| Amount | $85,000 a year | Up to $50,000 |
| Term | Three years | 2026, with future funding subject to a board vote |
| Source | Not specified | Town general fund |
| District edges | Original downtown area | Extended north to Turner Avenue, south to Welch Avenue, west to U.S. 287 |
The August meeting changed more than the dollar amount. One resident told the board, "I don't think this group is ready for the $50,000 request." She said some businesses had been left out of the agreement. Trustee Brett Wing agreed the decision should be more inclusive, and Mayor pro tem May Soricelli-Albrecht said she wanted the adjusted agreement to reach west to Highway 287. That's why the boundary moved. If your business sits between Mountain Avenue and U.S. 287, it's now inside the program area. Trustee Casey Grace was unanimously appointed as the Town's nonvoting liaison to the Berthoud Main Street board.
The signed agreement lists what the money is for: program management, reporting and compliance, communications, downtown promotion, stakeholder engagement and year-round activation. The Town gets an annual report in return covering spending, yearly achievements, goals for the coming year and a statement of planned expansion. Future funding goes back to the board for a vote, so the Scarecrow Contest, Trick or Treat Street and the December festival all happen while that next decision is still open.
The bigger target is the Colorado Main Street program, run through the Colorado Department of Local Affairs. Berthoud Main Street calls itself an aspiring Colorado Main Street community. The Town agreement says the group is working toward formal participation. To get in, it needs three things: a paid program manager, a sustainable three-year funding strategy and a formal partnership with the Town.
As of the August vote, the formal partnership is in place. The three-year funding is only partly there, since the Town committed to one year instead of three. The paid manager is what that funding is meant to make possible. When the group pitched the board in May, it cited Main Street America's figure that every $1 put into a main street program brings $21 of local reinvestment.
The group's stated mission, as written into the agreement, is "strengthening and preserving Downtown Berthoud's distinctive character by supporting local business, arts and culture, historic preservation, walkability, and community connection."
These are names you may recognize from behind a counter. Whitney Way signed the Town agreement as board president and executive director. The other directors are Tim Hardy, Steve Byers, Courtney VanHooser, Paul Halstead and Mike Baron. Casey Grace, Stephanie Horvath and Brian Dubois are listed ex officio. The nonprofit's bylaws were approved February 8, 2026. Its IRS tax-exemption dates back to August 27, 2019.
Before the Town money arrived, the group tried a monthly event of its own. Sidewalk Sundays started May 3 and ran on the first Sunday of each month: May 3, June 7, July 5, August 2 and September 6. The first one's lineup was a who's-who of Mountain Avenue: Arcana House, City Star Brewing, Cobblestone Corner, Marley and Moose, Osito's, Rise Artisan Bread, The Source Zero NoCo, The Rancher's Wife, Wishful Living and You and Me Floral and Gifts. Homestead Fine Art Gallery listed itself on every date through September.
Five months of first Sundays, run by volunteers, before any public money was approved. That's the kind of "year-round activation" the agreement now funds and asks the group to report on.
At 335 Mountain Ave., another downtown decision is moving on a similar schedule. Asher Architects + Engineers, a Berthoud firm founded in 2020, closed on the historic Odd Fellows building in May 2026 and was fully up and running on the second floor by June. The ground floor, where Bradford's Grub and Grog used to be, is open for a restaurant tenant. Founder David Stranathan said the firm wants a locally focused restaurant. It's taking proposals through the end of the year and plans to pick a tenant in early 2027.
"As architects and engineers, we naturally appreciate great buildings." The building "represents an important part of Berthoud's history, and we saw an opportunity not only to establish our office there, but also to help preserve and revitalize a building that has played a significant role in the community for well over a century." — David Stranathan, Asher Architects + Engineers
The building went up in 1901 as a one-story brick commercial building. A second floor was added by November of that year as a meeting hall for the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and the front was extended in 1917 to line up with its neighbors. It had been on the market for several years before Asher bought it.
So when you're walking the Scarecrow Map in late October or lining up for the Parade of Lights on December 5, you'll pass a storefront that's still taking restaurant proposals. Asher expects to choose its tenant in early 2027, and any Town funding for Berthoud Main Street beyond 2026 still needs its own board vote.
Do you own on or near Mountain Avenue and wonder whether the new district lines or a new restaurant at 335 Mountain Ave. could change what your place is worth? Manny P Sells Homes can walk you through it with a free home valuation, and Manny will keep tracking downtown Berthoud's changes as they happen.
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