GORHAM – The Gorham Town Council on Tuesday, unanimously and without discussion, handed to the Westbrook-Gorham Chamber of Commerce responsibility for managing the town’s annual founders festival.

The council agreed to sign a memorandum of understanding with the chamber to organize and conduct the two-day Gorham Founders Festival. No one from the public commented on the shift.

“The Town Council will not have operational control over the festival,” Darryl Wright of Gorham, chamber president, said after the council meeting, but Wright hopes some councilors would serve on the festival’s committee.

The festival, which has been staged in the past on Memorial Day weekend, will now be switched to Friday, July 26, and Saturday, July 27.

The founders festival kicked off in 2011 when Gorham celebrated its 275th birthday. Settlers began arriving in 1736 in what then was a wilderness known as Narragansett No. 7, a land grant from Massachusetts. The first festival two years ago honoring town forebears included guided tours of several historical sites in town and the University of Southern Maine campus.

Wright has headed up organizing Westbrook Together Days, held in early June, for five years, and has served on that event’s committee for nine years. Wright also has served as co-chairman with Gorham Town Councilor Suzanne Phillips on the founders festival committee.

The midway for this year’s annual founders festival will again be located at the town’s so-called Chick property, adjacent to Narragansett Elementary School on Main Street and the Public Safety Building. The shift in dates came to accommodate volunteers and nonprofit groups with other Memorial Day weekend activities.

The July dates also avoid conflicting with festivals in neighboring communities. Wright said the founders festival would be a week later than both Buxton Community Days and the Yarmouth Clam Festival.

The founders festival will again feature amusement rides and entertainment.

“That’s about all we have nailed down,” Wright said.

Other festival activities still need to be developed. Wright said it already has some companies willing to sponsor events and he sees the founders festival as a fundraising opportunity for booster clubs and school groups.

Wright said the chamber plans to make the founders festival unique to Gorham. The Gorham and Westbrook festivals will have separate committees and finances.

“We’re not going to comingle accounts,” Wright said.

Last year, the chamber added Gorham to its name and, Wright said, it has 25 Gorham members and 105 members overall.

“We’re looking at ways to do things in Gorham,” Wright said. “We now have a lot of people focusing on Gorham.

Gorham has had previous summer festivals that didn’t survive, but Wright is optimistic about longevity for the founders festival.

“This isn’t a short-term thing,” he said.

Wright, vice president and financial services manager at People’s United Bank in Westbrook, is seeking volunteers to serve on the founders festival committee, and plans a meeting within two weeks. Wright can be contacted at 856-7414 or email darryl.wright@peoples.com.

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