- kelly7317
Town Hall for Revitalizing the Square
February 1st marked the kick-off of the Community Empowerment
Grant awarded to the city of Vienna from Missouri Main Street
Connection. The grant was applied to by the Vienna Chamber of Commerce seeking out a way to encourage economic development and bring revitalization to the Square which holds the Maries County Courthouse at the heart. The Town Hall presented by Missouri Main Street Connection is the first piece of the grant delivered to Vienna providing education on the 4-Points that will be followed through the process as well as giving the community a chance to establish their "Wildly Important Goals".
Vienna Town Hall
.pdf
Download PDF • 4.16MB
The meeting began with a presentation from Ben White, Program Outreach Specialist with Missouri Mainstreet Connection which educated the community on what Missouri Main Street is and the approach they use to revitalize communities. You can find the power point above or view a snippet from the presentation here:
From the meeting the group broke into 4 break-out sessions for brainstorming on the following topics: Design, Promotion, Economic Vitality, and Organization. The groups determined that these were Vienna's top 5 Wildly Important Goals for revitalizing the downtown square in each of the four categories:
Promotion
1. New business/New mover resource guides
2. Architectural Scavenger Hunt to teach Vienna’s history
3. Tractor Parade around the square
4. Events around the square such as farmers markets, trunk show, car show, and art walk
5. Business marketing ideas
Economic Vitality
1. Bring building owners together
2. Create boundaries to measure impact
3. Talk to building owners, especially those interested in redevelopment
4. Survey on potential business interest
5. Reach out to State Tech to train current and potential work force
Organization
1. Involve Eagles, Knights, Lions with fundraisers
2. Create fundraisers based on organization’s activities
3. Create buzz on social media and newspaper on successes
4. Sell potential volunteers on projects and initiatives
5. Commemorative decorative bricks
Design
1. Electric charging stations
2. Planters/flowers/maintenance from school kids
3. Street lights
4. Wayfinding
5. Murals
What's Next?
From here the community's first steps are to finalize the bylaws that have been submitted for feedback to gain its 501c3 status, continue to develop the building inventory database, and work the organizational plan provided by Missouri Mainstreet. In May we will begin a community survey where we will continue to gather information on community members' thoughts on the Square and how they would like to spend their time when they are there.
Vienna Main Street Organizational Plan
.pdf
Download PDF • 241KB
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