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Wake Forest Mayor Vivian Jones, herself
a downtown merchant, began last week’s
town board meeting by announcing that
Wake Forest has been accepted into the
North Carolina Main Street Program and
hugging the new chairman of the Downtown
Revitalization Corporation, Cristiana
Walkley.
Walkley said she was both
ecstatic and honored because this is a
prestigious designation, and many
communities apply several times before
being accepted, if they ever are. “This
is only the second time we have applied.
“We get better access to
grants and the benefits of consulting
services,” Walkley said, “and obviously
it is good public relations for the
town.”
This year’s selections of
Wake Forest, Fuquay-Varina, Clayton and
Hickory bring the number of Main Street
communities in the state to 57, although
some are now inactive. This is the first
time Wake County towns were selected
since the program began in 1980.
Mark Fleming, the executive
director of the Wake Forest Chamber of
Commerce, congratulated everyone
involved. “The competition for this
honor is fierce. This is a very big deal
for Wake Forest and will allow more
opportunities for grants for downtown.
In addition to the positive publicity,
Wake Forest will also be able to take
advantage of the expertise of the Main
Street staff.
“Several people have been
working on this for years,” Fleming
said. “Congratulations to current DRC
chair Cristiana Walkley, past DRC chairs
Tom Iversen and Jonnie Anderson, and
interim DRC Downtown Manager Nancy
Tebeau, who have all worked to make this
a reality for our community.”
Towns can remain in the
program “probably forever,” Jeff
Adolphsen, the DRC’s vice-chairman said.
“It’s a great way of
networking between different communities
and a way to find out what works for
other folks,” Adolphsen said. “You get a
lot of support from the Main Street
folks the first years you’re in the
program for building rehab and market
analysis.”
Adolphsen said the Wake
Forest DRC has already taken some of the
steps, mentioning the retail market
analysis the South Carolina firm of
Arnett Muldrow presented last February
along with a downtown logo, some basic
advertising and a way-finding strategy.
That last is a number of signs that will
help newcomers find their way to the
Wake Forest downtown which, unlike most
in other towns, is not on Main Street.
He laughed at the true story
of a Wake Forest resident who did not
learn where the downtown area was for at
least three months after moving here
about five years ago, even though the
person’s house was within a block of
downtown.
Adolphsen said the DRC will
be working to put up the signs, and the
Wake Forest Town Board gave $13,359 to
the DRC for the project in this year’s
budget.
The town will also fund 55
percent of the DRC’s operating budget
for the year, $87,650 in town funds, and
will provide $5,000 for the Façade
Improvement Project, a matching-fund
program to help storeowners install new
awnings or make other improvements to
the store’s appearance.
The DRC’s operating budget
includes money for a full-time town
manager. The DRC hired Connie Kincaid in
May, but she resigned in August before
moving to town. Kincaid had, however,
spearheaded the DRC’s efforts to become
part of the Main Street Program.
Walkley said this week the
DRC has selected a candidate for the
position. In the interim, Nancy Tebeau,
formerly a downtown business owner, has
continued as a part-time manager. A
full-time manager is one of the
requirements of the Main Street Program.
The downtown will also
benefit from the town’s Renaissance
Plan, which envisions improvements over
a wider area than the downtown. One of
those, the extension of Franklin Street
to the N.C. 98 bypass, already provides
improved access to downtown, and the
planned improvements – medians,
roundabouts, sidewalks, trees and
shrubbery – will make it more
attractive.
The DRC also has a grant
from the state Department of
Transportation for the streetscape
improvements that will begin in the
northern blocks of South White Street,
providing better access to stores and
improving the appearance of the street.
The plans are almost complete, and
construction could begin next year.
The Main Street Program was
begun in 1980 when the National Trust
for Historic Preservation created the
National Main Street Center to share the
lessons it had learned in a pilot
revitalization program.
The next step was a
three-year demonstration program in six
states – one of which was North Carolina
– with encouragement for new approaches
for business and government to assist
local revitalization efforts. Since the
demonstration program ended, North
Carolina has continued the program,
adding Main Street communities and
providing indirect assistance to many
others.
The Main Street Program is
administered by the North Carolina
Department of Commerce’s Division of
Community Assistance. If you want to
know more about it, go to
http://www.nccommerce.com and look
down the opening page for “Main Street
Program.” |
