LISBON — Ross Cunningham wanted his three-member business panel “to be brutally honest” Monday night about the town where he has lived for the last 11 years.

And they were.

Speaking before a newly formed group called Positive Change Lisbon, Brunswick developer Jim Howard admitted, “My first impression of this town was it’s old, and it’s run-down.”

Cunningham opened the meeting saying, “We have a lot of experience sitting up here on this panel. What these guys say may be painful, but don’t shoot the messenger.”

Howard, the president and CEO of Priority Group LLC, was joined on the panel by former LL Bean Senior Vice President Scott Howard, now a managing partner for a consulting group called Harpswell Partners, and Don Spann, the owner of ReMax Riverside in Topsham.

Jim Howard said he first became aware of the town’s “image problem” when he was working with the owners of the Furniture Superstore, who eventually decided to relocate their Lewiston business in a new building on Route 196 in Lisbon.

“It was very difficult getting them to accept a Lisbon address,” he said. “They were concerned with the perception of being in Lisbon. But it has turned out to be an incredibly successful store.”

Spann urged the group to “take a look at the gateways to Lisbon,” whether it’s the intersection where the former Graziano’s Restaurant building is, or the old Worumbo Mill.

Town Council Chairman Fern Larochelle asked, “I don’t think anyone would disagree we’re old and run down, but do you have any ideas on how to get businesses and private homes to dress themselves up?”

Spann offered the example of how many of the facades of older buildings in the city of Bath were cleaned up with grant money.

“Yes, you can get assistance from government grants and TIFs,” Scott Howard said, “but first you have to have a plan. And the plan has to have input from the public and private side.”

All three panel members agreed that before a plan can be developed the town needs to develop a vision of what they want the town to be.

“Begin by taking an inventory of all your strengths and weaknesses,” Scott Howard said. He asked the group, “Do you have natural gas here?”

On hearing that some sections of town do have natural gas, he asked, “Do you realize what an asset that is? Natural gas is going to be the least expensive form of energy: we’re at $3.50 a gallon for oil and $1.50 for natural gas. You need to promote that.”

Jim Howard pointed to the dramatic redevelopment of the lower village in Topsham that transformed that area as an example of people who developed a vision, made a plan, and carried it out.

“One of the first things we had to do, and I urge you to do it, is come up with some design standards. We put our buildings close to the road, with parking behind; we had standards for walkways, lighting, landscaping. We set standards for what we wanted to see, and 90 percent of what we wanted to do, we did.”