Texas Main Street officials visit Linden

By Ben Woods
bwoods@casscountynow.com

LINDEN-- Texas Main Street officials met with local citizens Dec. 1 at the Linden Senior Center to discuss the first steps after being approved to be a Texas Main Street City.
Texas Main Street Coordinator Debra Drescher hosted the presentation along with Sarah Marshall the Texas Main Street coordinator and small business specialists.
Drescher said her staff members are poised to help the city with resources when it becomes an official designated Main Street city on Jan. 1.
These resources include architects, planning teams and small business specialists business owners. They will also work with the Main Street manager, which Linden plans to hire in the near future.
“We help create a community of downtown business’s that support your need because what is going to work here is probably not going to work in Longview, another Main Street City,” Drescher said.
Drescher explained the four-point approach of the Main Street program. The four points are organization, promotion, design, and economic restructuring; which help build a sustainable and complete community revitalization effort.
Drescher emphasized that a Main Street is very nontraditional economic preservation program that is not going after large scale manufacturing companies with three or four hundred employees. She said Linden’s Main Street program will be tailored to preserve the historic value of the buildings and hopes to promote property stewardship.
Drescher said the city will need to assemble a Main Street Advisory Board. Having a good advisory board is key to the program’s success. The board will be required to send regular reports documenting the progress of the program to Texas Main Street officials.
“The reason that most Main Street programs that have failed is because of weak leadership,” Drescher said.
There will also be a need for city-wide community involvement with volunteers serving on Main Street committees.
Additional fact-finding visits by Texas Main Street officials to meet with citizens and business owners to gather more information and public input will take place after the first of year.
Marshall said one of the objectives is to use this information to help determine what kind of businesses downtown will support.
Linden Main Street will also establish a steering committee to plan for the First Lady’s Tour this spring. This will be an event where the Texas First Lady Cecilia Abbott will visit Linden, tour the downtown area and unveil an architectural rendering of the Main Street plans for the city. There will be a public reception. It will likely take place in April or May.
Texas Main Street Program is a 35-year old program and was the first one in the country. When Linden becomes an official designated Main Street city, it will be the 89th city in the program.