Main Street Program Explained At Town Meeting

Revitalization of downtown Trenton through assistance from the Main Street Missouri program was the topic of a town hall meeting held on Thursday.
Keith Winge, community development director with the program, talked to the group of around 30 persons about the Main Street program and how it can be used as Trenton moves forward in making improvements to the downtown area. A Main Street Trenton program has been established through the Trenton Downtown Improvement Association, with Megan Derry serving as the coordinator as well as TDIA Executive Director. Winge and the Main Street Missouri staff will be working with Trenton over the next two years as it moves forward in its downtown revitalization efforts.
Winge said the Missouri program was created through the National Trust for Historic Preservation as a way to help communities preserve their downtown areas. Using the “Four-Point Approach,” communities can make fundamental changes in a community’s economic base while preserving its historical commercial buildings and it’s unique heritage. The goal, Winge said, is to create a sustainable organization that functions as the revitalization leader in the community.
Winge noted it will take the entire community to help make a revitalization program successful and said that the Four-Point Approach uses a committee structure to address areas of importance as revitalization efforts move forward. The Four-Point Approach committee structure includes:
Organization – Building a government framework that includes a diverse representation of business and property owners, bankers, citizens, public officials, etc., who would work together in a long-term effort to revitalize the downtown area. The committee would train and develop leaders for the revitalization effort as well as help create a not-for-profit organization, establish priorities through comprehensive work plans, provide the organization with sustainable sources of revenue and develop volunteers.
Economic Development – Involves analyzing current market trends to develop long-term solutions; helping to recruit new business while strengthening those already there while diversifying the economic base; help convert unused space for new uses while working closely with the Design Committee to seek appropriate solutions for historical commercial buildings that will ensure their continued viability through occupancy, maintenance and preservation.
Design – Enhances the visual attractiveness of downtown, including technical assistance and encouragement to building owners toward the restoration and rehabilitation of historic structures, street and alley cleanup, colorful banners and landscaping. Attention must be paid to safe and efficient infrastructure, including streets, sidewalks, curbs and gutters and the appearance of storefronts, signs, street lights, window displays and graphic materials. Design improvements should be developed through a public-private partnership by reinvestment of public and private dollars in downtown.
Promotion – Projects a positive, unified image to identify downtown as a gathering place. Programs market the district and the community through a series of activities such as special events and festivals, which highlight the local culture, art, music, dance and traditions that give each community its unique identity.
Those who were present at the meeting were then divided into one of the four “Four-Point Approach” committees to come up with suggestions that would fall under those areas. Among suggestions were building relationships with downtown business and property owners to help them understand what the program is about and to get their participation, increased promotion of the downtown area through various media, improved signage, making the downtown “more aesthetically pleasing” with lighting and sidewalk improvements, having the city be more aggressive in enforcing building codes in the downtown area, trying to match available buildings with potential owners who would utilize the structures for business purposes and a redesign of parking. There were also suggestions of a “Five Points Festival,” to promote the city’s “Five Point City” theme, having an art event, having a farmer’s market, having a community “welcome back to school” event to celebrate the start of school at NCMC and Trenton that would include food and music and working with existing groups to expand and improve events already being held in the downtown area.
Information from each of the groups was collected by Winge and will be compiled and sent back to Ms. Derry for use as the local program moves forward. Winge also challenged each person present to go out and “talk with your neighbor” about what they had learned at the meeting.
“It is the people in this room and in your community that will help this be successful,” he said.