Coshocton joins Ohio Main Street Program
Heritage Ohio, Inc. announced Coshocton has been selected as the newest community to join the Ohio Main Street Program. Coshocton has been participating in Heritage Ohio’s Downtown Affiliate Program since 2011, building the capacity needed to be successful in revitalizing downtown. Heritage Ohio hosted a member selection committee over zoom on May 27. During the community review process the Coshocton Board had the opportunity to present their program of work as well as answer questions put forth by the selection committee. Coshocton will join an elite group of 22 additional communities dedicated to a comprehensive and highly successful trademarked Main Street revitalization strategy.
Current Ohio Main Street Programs include: Cambridge, Delaware, Cleveland, Kent, Lebanon, Marietta, Medina, Middletown, Millersburg, Mount Vernon, Painesville, Piqua, Portsmouth, Ravenna, Tiffin, Tipp City, Troy, Van Wert, Vermilion, Wadsworth, Wellington, Wooster.
Main Street communities receive intensive training and technical support needed to restore their central and neighborhood business districts to centers of community activity and commerce. The assistance includes volunteer and program manager training, marketing and promotion, business recruitment, market analysis, design, historic preservation and fundraising. The Heritage Ohio Main Street Program will also conduct on-site visits to help each community develop its work program and plan for success.
“Coshocton has demonstrated a local commitment to establishing a downtown revitalization program as well as the procurement of stable funding for a sustained revitalization program. We are looking forward to seeing what Coshocton will do next,” said Joyce Barrett, director of Heritage Ohio.
The Heritage Ohio Main Street Program is modeled after the Main Street America’s comprehensive approach to downtown revitalization. The Main Street movement grew out of a recognition that a community is only as strong as its core. In an era when many people had given up hope about the commercial and cultural viability of downtown, and when suburbs, shopping malls, and big box retailers were dominating the American landscape, this seemed like an unlikely proposition. But, over the last four decades, the Main Street movement has proven that downtowns are the heart of communities, and that a community is only as strong as its core.
Heritage Ohio began, as Downtown Ohio, Inc., organized in 1989 is a statewide non-profit corporation that encourages the development, redevelopment and improvement of downtowns and neighborhood commercial district areas throughout Ohio. For more information, visit www.heritageohio.org.
“The board of Our Town Coshocton and its committees have kept the flame of preservation and development lit for our downtown Main Street,” said Lanny Spaulding, executive director of Our Town Coshocton. “This announcement will solidify those efforts to establish a culture of prosperity in downtown Coshocton. Our selection as the latest full member community to Heritage Ohio has now effectively established Coshocton’s place in an East-Central corridor of vibrant Main Streets committed to historic preservation. Whether it be access to a network of successful main streets, a vast array of training and development tools, or pools of potential grant funding that have now been opened to our community; Our Town Coshocton has added new tools in its arsenal for development and preservation- and we intend to use them.”
Category: Business
