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Friends of Main Street Needs Volunteers
By Natalie Attianese, Winsted
This is the first in a series of articles that will be written by Friends of Main Street participants who serve on the Organization Committee. We will attempt to give the community an overview and understanding of Friends of Main Street and where our goals and endeavors will take us.
The local Friends of Main Street group was started in April 1998 by a group of citizens concerned about our Main Street, its merchants or lack thereof, and what image we would like to portray to those visiting our New England town. These citizens began the long and arduous process of applying for the Connecticut Main Streets designation for Winsted and were accepted into the program in June 2001.
In 1995, the Connecticut Main Street program was launched by the Connecticut Light and Power Company (CL&P), which still stand as the only private corporation in the country to solely sponsor and administer a statewide Main Street initiative. In late 1999, in an effort to develop a diverse group of partners, CL&P spun off CMSC as a private, nonprofit corporation with its own board of directors. Each spring CMSC holds an application workshop and once accepted, the designated Main Street organization (i.e. Friends of Main Street) is guaranteed a minimum of four years of active assistance and intervention from the Center, with an especially intensive training period during the crucial first year of involvement (which all local volunteers are undergoing now). An organization can retain its Connecticut Main Street designation indefinitely as long as it meets certain criteria.
The Connecticut Main Street Center believes that by spurring economic development within the context of historical preservation, it can help Connecticut's Main Streets once more to become thriving centers of commercial and social activity. Connecticut Main Street Center is part of a national network that has been in place for over 20 years, bringing together public officials, business owners, financial resources, community activists, and the economic development and historic preservation communities under one umbrella organization. They help communities analyze core issues and set attainable objectives. They provide training workshops, design and technical assistance, and advocacy, and allow communities to identify and develop their unique assets in an incremental and comprehensive way.
Currently there are ten Connecticut Main Street communities, and this year up to three new communities will be added. The closest one to us is Simsbury. These communities have generated over $101 million in public and private reinvestment in their downtowns since the program began in 1996. This represents $40.75 of reinvestment for every $1 spent on a local Main Street program.
How will this program benefit Winsted? It enhances community pride and quality of life, preserves and creates jobs, and enhances industrial, commercial and professional development. It increases collaboration between public and private sectors in order to attain common goals. It bolsters property values throughout the community, grows existing businesses, attracts new businesses, and reinforces other economic development activities while protecting and utilizing the historic assets in downtown. The program increases the tax base by developing vacant and underutilized buildings to higher and better uses, and leverages significant reinvestment in downtown.
The Connecticut Main Street approach relies heavily on the Four Point Approach to Downtown Revitalization that will be addressed in detail in future articles, but they are as follows: (1) organization; (2) promotion; (3) design; and (4) economic restructuring/ business improvement. The above committees need volunteers. The current volunteers have been very busy over the winter attending workshops, learning the program so that we may implement it in our community. We need more people, we need you to become involved. It will not happen if you do not become interested and call us to find out who and what we are all about.
We have a wonderful opportunity to invest in our community with a nationally recognized organization as our support team. Small, frequent and visible projects will make a big difference and reinforce the perception of positive change and remind the community that the revitalization effort is under way. Please call 738-3351 with questions and to volunteer.
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