SQUARE NEWS

“Without community

service, we would

not have a strong

quality of life. It's

important to the per-

son who serves as

well as the recipient.

It's the way in which

we ourselves grow

and develop.”

-- Dorothy Height

In This Issue

New Main Street

Iowa Community

The Main Street

Approach

Square Clean-Up

Friday Night Thunder

Centerville announced as a new Main Street Iowa Community.

Centerville is new Main Street Iowa Community Gov. Terry Branstad on August 27th announced that two Iowa communities were selected to join the Main Street Iowa program: Centerville and Grundy Center. The announcement was made during the opening session of the Iowa Downtown Summit in West Des Moines’ Historic Valley Junction.

“Iowa’s historic main streets are the heart and soul of our communities,” said Gov. Branstad. “We will continue to do whatever we can to keep Iowa’s downtowns strong and vibrant for business owners, workers, residents and visitors. I am pleased to wel-come each of these communities into the Main Street family, and wish them much success in the future.”

For more than 29 years, the Main Street Iowa program and its communities have been looked upon as the “best of the best” in a national effort to revitalize downtowns across the country. The addition of these new communities brings the total number of Main Street communities in Iowa to 53.

“In their applications and presentations, the selected communities demonstrated strong partnerships, a high level of volunteerism and a commitment to the revitaliza-tion of their downtown districts. We are confident that these three cities will thrive and grow for many years to come,” said Debi Durham, director of the Iowa Economic De-velopment Authority, the agency that administers the Main Street Iowa program.

In order to become designated Main Street Iowa community, applicants

Main Street Centerville Newsletter October 2015

Cont. page 2

CENTERVILLE

The Main Street Approach The Main Street Approach® was developed by the National Main Street

Center, Inc. with the goal of economic development within the context of

historic preservation. The following four points and eight guiding principles

are integrated to create a positive, identifiable image for downtown dis-

tricts.

Economic Restructuring -- This element involves diversifying the commer-cial district economy by identifying potential market niches, finding new uses for vacant or underused spaces and improving business practices.

Design -- Utilizing appropriate design concepts, the visual quality of the commercial district (buildings, signs, window displays, landscaping, and environment) is enhanced.

Organization -- Each community has many groups of people who are in-terested in and are willing to work toward the goal of a revitalized com-mercial district. The organizational element brings together the public sec-tor, private groups and individual citizens, with coordination by a paid pro-gram manager, to work more effectively in the commercial district.

Promotion -- By promoting the downtown in a positive manner, a commu-

nity can begin to focus on the commercial district as a source of communi-

ty pride, social activity and economic development potential.

NEW MAIN STREET

must meet high standards. Communi-ty representatives must attend rigor-ous training sessions before even being eligible to apply. They must demonstrate support from local organ-izations, businesses and lawmakers; funding and in-kind support must be secured and documented; strategic plans outlining short- and long-term goals must be in place. Most im-portantly, community officials, busi-ness owners and volunteers must agree to work together with the com-mon goals of preserving Iowa’s histor-ic buildings and unique commercial business districts, and improving the local economy by adopting and follow-ing the Main Street Four Point Ap-proach to historic commercial district revitalization.

“I know how well the Main Street Iowa program can work since I was a founding member of the Osceola Main Street program,” said Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds. “The process was not easy, nor was it quick, but it certainly yielded results.”

While it may be challenging to be-come a Main Street community, desig-nated communities reap many bene-fits. During the first three years of the program, each community receives approximately 40 days of on-site train-ing and technical assistance from Main Street Iowa, National Main Street Center staff and private con-sultants, as well as 30 days of training for volunteers and local staff, valued at $120,000. Main Street communities each receive continuing training and technical assistance valued at $10,000 plus annually.

Over the years, by working together with the state, Main Street Iowa com-munities have realized the benefits of more than 2.7 million hours of volun-teer time invested into improving their city centers, a significantly increased job and business base, and over $1.4 billion in private investment to pur-chase, construct and rehabilitate

downtown property.

For more information on the Iowa Eco-

nomic Development Authority’s Main

Street Iowa program, visit iowaeco-

nomicdevelopment.com, or call the

Main Street Iowa office at (515) 725-

3051.

Main Street Iowa helps with new design concepts for Main Street Districts

If interested in becoming a Main Street

Centerville volunteer contact:

Mary Wells, Director at 641-895-2088

Main Street

Centerville

Board of

Directors

Mary Wells

Director

Nancy Bennett

President

Judy Dorman

Vice President

Bill Burch

Treasurer

Neil MacArthur

Secretary

Carl Cisler

Brad Grothe

Jon Schmidt

Andy Woodrick

Jan Spurgeon

Roman Royer

Committee Chairs

Organization

Becky Maxwell

Business Development

Cole Durrett

Promotions

Brooke Johnson

Design

Judy Dorman

Mary Wells, Main Street Centerville Director assigns duties for clean-up day.

Square Clean-up big success On Thursday, October 8 the Main

Street Centerville and Main Street

Iowa hosted a clean-up day on the

square. Approximately 75 people

showed up to help volunteer during

the two-hour clean-up.

The clean-up consisted of cleaning

the alleys around the square, blowing

leaves off of sidewalks, pulling weeds

and redecorating the window display

at Gilworth Furniture.

“We couldn’t asked for a better turnout

of volunteers’” stated Becky Maxwell,

chair of the organization committee. “It

was great to see Indian Hills Commu-

nity College join in the efforts.”

A picnic style lunch was provided by

J&K Market, Hy-Vee, Rathbun Rural

Water and Morgan’s offered free ice

cream cones.

Main Street Centerville would like to

thank everyone who helped.

Contact Us

Give us a call for more information

about our services

Main Street Centerville

Bradley Bank Building

307 N. 13th Street, Suite 500

Centerville, Iowa 52544

Mary Wells, Director

641-895-2088

director@mainstreetcenterville.com

Visit us on the web at

www.mainstreetcenterville.com

Friday Night Thunder The Main Street Centerville introduced a new monthly summer concert se-

ries better known as Centerville Bike Night. The event was held the 4th Fri-

day of May, June, July and August.

The committee for Friday Night Thunder consisted of Becky Maxwell, Tim

Moore, Ryan Stober and Mary Wells.

The group also had volunteers help at the event and would like to say thank

you to the City of Centerville, Centerville Police and Fire Departments, Eagle

Riders, BOB Group, Kay Shondel, Amy Kroeger, Trista Barbaglia, Sheila

Selix and Jackie Wells and for helping the night of the event.

Plans are in the works for Bike Night 2016.

Thank you to all that attended you are the reason for the success of the

event!

Main Street Centerville

4307 North 13th Street, Suite 500

Centerville, Iowa 52544

PLACE STAMP HERE

To find out what is going on in the square district go to www.mainstreetcenterville.com

Become a Main Street Centerville Investor

Main Street Centerville is seeking individuals and businesses interested in making an annual or monthly dona-tion pledge to support our grass roots organization.

Those investing receive many benefits, including supporting a results oriented organization, online assistance

for businesses from a listing on our website, cross promotions, seminars and more.

To become an investor contact Mary Wells, Director at 641-895-2088