'Main Street' members question focus

Less than a year after it began forming, Shelbyville's prospective Main Street has hit a bump in the road -- but it wasn't unexpected.

"It takes a bare minimum of two years to be an official Main Street organization," said Cindy Drake, chairman of the group that began in August 2007. "And you have to be a state Main Street two years before you can be a federal one."

"Main Street" is the national Main Street Center for the National Trust for Historic Preservation -- an organization dedicated to revitalizing commercial districts such as Main Streets and public squares.

A non-profit organization, Main Street provides information, technical assistance, sponsors conferences and workshops, and conducts research and lobbying on critical revitalization projects.

At the monthly meeting held last week at The Gathering Place, members of the Main Street board voiced concerns about the organization's focus.

"What is the status of this organization being a true Main Street?" asked Lynn Hulan. "It seems like we're missing a core element."

Hulan and others said they felt too much emphasis was being placed on the promotional aspects of Main Street -- events on the square such as the recent Red Hat Days. Hulan said that although she felt the events were beneficial in bringing people to the square, they were more along the lines of a Downtown Merchants' Association project.

"The Downtown Merchants' Association looks strictly at the interests of the merchants," said Drake in a later interview. "The Main Street program looks at everything in the district -- landscaping, buildings, work that needs to be done, recruiting the right kinds of businesses here."

"For me," said Hulan at the meeting, "The number one core element should be having city, county and some serious corporate support."

Board member Harold Segroves echoed her sentiments and expounded upon it.

"If this organization keeps on the same track it is on now, it will die," Segroves said, "I'm afraid that what we have here is a group of specific interests but not a group that has Main Street as its goal."

According to the Main Street website, www.mainstreet.org, the organization should work to implement four key areas: Organization, design, promotion and economic restructuring. Hulan and Segroves said they felt promotion was getting the majority of the board's energy and efforts, while the other three aspects were being neglected.

Drake agreed. The problem, she said later, was that due to mitigating circumstances, the board has not had easy access to the accounts in recent months and the legal paperwork on the Main Street and on the 501 (c) 6 non-profit status had been put on a brief hiatus. With new board member Ralph McBride coming on as legal counsel and Barrettea Price taking over as treasurer, Drake said those issues will be addressed quickly.

"We were doing a lot of promotions because that was all we really could do at the time," she said.

Segroves was named to the organization committee at the meeting.

"I don't see structure because I don't think we have structure," he said. "We are acting as if we already have a Main Street when we should be designing and creating a Main Street. They have the program -- we're just not following it."

Segroves said an important factor in getting Main Street organized and energized is finding the right people to help.

"We don't have enough representation around this table of the power centers of this community," he said. "You've got to find the movers and shakers."

Getting organized has been a challenge, said Drake, but the response has been very good.

"We get several memberships a week," she said. "This is an all-volunteer organization. Pat (Macmillan) donates her space at The Gathering Place for our meetings, we (Drake Signs) donate space for Main Street."

For more information about the Shelbyville Main Street, visit www.uptownshelbyville.com.