A new, citizen-led committee is being formed to reimagine what the Main Street program could do for Nashville’s business community.

Three Zoom meetings have taken place so far this winter to discuss what the Nashville Main Street program has been in the past and could be in the future.

Established in 2003, the Nashville program has undertaken a variety of activities benefiting the downtown business community, visitors and residents, from decorating for Christmas, to getting grants to completely rework under-street infrastructure and fix drainage problems.

In late 2019, the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA), which manages the Indiana Main Street program, reworked the structure of the Main Street program. As a result, Nashville’s no longer qualified as an accredited Main Street group. In two meetings last month, a loose committee of elected officials, local business leaders and community volunteers discussed whether or not Nashville’s program needs to become accredited and what its larger purpose should be.

They haven’t come to any solid answers yet, but they did work through a resolution to establish a “citizens advisory committee to reestablish accreditation” called the Main Street Advisory Committee.

That group will include five members, one each appointed by the Brown County Chamber of Commerce, the Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau, the Brown County Community Foundation, Nashville Town Council president (with approval of council) and Brown County Commissioners (with approval of commissioners).

None of the committee members can hold elected office; they all must live in Brown County; and all will serve for an initial 18-month term.

When the committee is seated, the group will be able to create founding documents like bylaws; apply for state and federal tax-exempt status; solicit support from different sectors of the community like merchants and civic organizations; and eventually apply to get the Nashville Main Street program accredited, among other duties.

A main thrust of Main Street organizations is revitalizing the local economy, image and appearance of their downtowns, while preserving their history.

“Main Street is not a grant program,” explained Jenni Voris, Brown County’s OCRA liaison, in a November meeting. “It’s a concept that can make your community more attractive to residents and outsiders.”

Some grants are available to Main Street organizations, but what those will look like going forward is unknown now because of COVID, she said. Earlier in 2020, Indiana OCRA awarded $200,000 to 40 Indiana Main Street organizations “that provide leadership and services to the businesses and members” of their Main Street organizations. Nashville was not one of the recipients.

The new Main Street structure includes a four-part approach to economic development: cultivating partnerships, community involvement and resources for the Main Street district; promoting the district as a hub of economic activity and showing off its unique characteristics; enhancing the assets that set the district apart; and creating a supportive economic and financial environment for the “entrepreneurs and innovators that drive local economies,” the Indiana Main Street website states.

“When you look at the overall umbrella of Indiana Main Street Organization, it is economically focused, and so it’s finding ways to draw people to the community, support the businesses, draw more business into community. It’s building that placemaking, a sense of belonging, of wanting to be in the downtown, of being drawn to the downtown for different purposes. There’s so much more that goes into it,” Voris explained in November.

Participants in the Jan. 27 meeting on creating the advisory committee saw positives to creating an accredited Main Street organization, especially considering the potential for grant funding.

“I think we have a missed opportunity,” said Greg Fox, president of the Brown County Chamber of Commerce. “I think we can do more and we can have access, potentially, to more grants and different opportunities by formalizing this and getting a committee together to drive it.”

Formalizing and reorganizing the Main Street group in no way means that people who are still serving on it are being pushed out, said community volunteer Lisa Hall. For instance, she would like to organize a Christmas market, and to do that, she’ll need the help of many volunteers, including those currently serving as “the Christmas committee” under Nashville Main Street.

“It’s a big hug to embrace everything everyone’s done already and bring it under one big umbrella,” she explained. “… I see it as just complimentary to what they’re already doing and they’ve created a foundation that we can build upon.”

Brenda Young, the Nashville Clerk-Treasurer who’s been driving Nashville’s Main Street group since its beginning, said she supports involving the many people who are showing interest. “I definitely would support that we all come together and we expand this partnership and make it better,” she said.

ON THE WEB:

Indiana Main Street program explanation: in.gov/ocra/mainstreet.

GET INVOLVED:

To express interest in serving on the Main Street Advisory Committee, contact the entities responsible for making appointments:

• Town council President Jane Gore
• County commissioners President Jerry Pittman
• Brown County Chamber of Commerce
• Brown County Convention and Visitors Bureau
• Brown County Community Foundation

The next meeting — which anyone can attend, but just committee members — will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 10 on Zoom. The agenda includes rules of procedure; highlights from the last annual report; review of national Main Street Four Point Approach; review of checklist for getting started with a Main Street program; presentation of bylaws; and public SWOT analysis discussion. Join the meeting at us02web.zoom.us/j/88439733393, meeting ID 884 3973 3393.