PARIS — Poised with the question of how the downtown should be shaped in the coming years to attract new residents and businesses, 20 people brainstormed ideas to help guide its future Monday night.

Among the ideas were high-speed wireless Internet service, a public beach and a farmers’ market.

The meeting at the Town Office roughly marked the halfway point on a study being compiled by Paris businesswoman Sandy Swett.

In May, selectmen commissioned Swett to complete an $8,500 comprehensive plan of the Market Square area. The scope of the plan roughly covers the bridge over the Little Androscoggin River near the intersections of Routes 117 and 119, to the Billings Dam to the train tracks near the McLaughlin Garden & Homestead.

“We’d like to say a huge industry is going to move into town, but that’s a pie-in-the-sky. Our foundation is a strong community,” Swett said

Swett said the broad goals of the plan were to improve living standards and attract new residents by beautifying and promoting its parks, roadsides and trails.

To do that, downtown — “the nucleus” — needs to be reinvigorated.

Residents wary of tax increases the plan might entail suggested ways of getting people to volunteer to beautify the town.

Robert Jewell recommended asking McLaughlin Garden & Homestead help with landscaping projects, and residents quickly latched on to that idea. Selectman Sam Elliot said trees could be planted along a stark-looking Main Street.

Selectman Robert Wessels suggested turning a large parking lot behind Market Square Restaurant into a farmers’ market.

A woman noted the town could do more to promote cultural attractions, noting her difficulties finding space for an artisans’ co-op.

Sarah Glynn suggested businesses could adopt a block of the street and the town could utilize Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s plan to require food-stamp recipients to work 20 hours a week by having them apply for town jobs.

How best to promote the town’s natural resources were also discussed. Jewell suggested turning town land along the Little Androscoggin River into a public beach, while Swett noted the need to promote trails between Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School on Main Street and Oxford Hills Middle School on Pine Street.

“That’s Paris’ best kept secret,” she said.

Culturally, ideas were floated to recapture the town’s identity by trumpeting its past, including its Finnish heritage, Paris Hill architecture and manufacturing history.

Calls for the town to devise a plan surfaced last summer when business owners formed a committee to discuss ideas to ease the property tax, which increased 20 percent in 2013.

Part of that plan, Swett said, was to come up with a strategy for capturing the ancillary business sprouting in the wake of the Oxford Casino along Route 26.

Bernard noted that Paris could look into high-speed Internet connections and offer expanded programming at Moore Park.

Jewell said to improve the tax base to attract businesses Swett should delve into the town’s demographic data.

“If you’re just putting up a ‘for sale’ sign on the town and you’re not looking for a specific industry, you’re going to have issues,” he said.

One resident urged the town to find a way to take ownership of the Norway Branch Railroad, a defunct spur running behind businesses along Main Street and  which Norway owns a controlling stake.

The study is expected to be completed by the end of October and an additional public hearing to generate ideas may be held.

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