Main Street Receives 2013 National Main Street Accreditation

Details: Last Updated: Wednesday, 25 June 2014 01:48; Hits: 1064

Vicksburg ,MS (May 16, 2013) – Vicksburg Main Street Program has been designated as an accredited National Main Street Program for meeting the commercial district revitalization performance standards set by the National Main Street Center®, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Each year, the National Main Street Center and its partners announce the list of accredited Main Street® programs that have built strong revitalization organizations and demonstrate their ability in using the Main Street Four Point Approach® methodology for strengthening their local economy and protecting their historic buildings.

"We congratulate this year's nationally accredited Main Street programs for meeting our established performance standards," says Valecia Crisafulli, acting director of the National Main Street Center. "Accredited Main Street programs are meeting the challenges of the downtown in the economy head on and are successfully using a focused, comprehensive revitalization strategy to keep their communities vibrant and sustainable."

The organization's performance is annually evaluated by Mississippi Main Street Association, which works in partnership with the National Main Street Center to identify the local programs that meet ten performance standards. These standards set the benchmarks for measuring an individual Main Street program's application of the Main Street Four Point Approach® to commercial district revitalization. Evaluation criteria determines the communities that are building comprehensive and sustainable revitalization efforts and include standards such as developing a mission, fostering strong public-private partnerships, securing an operating budget, tracking economic progress and preserving historic buildings.

"We realize the growth and the potential that our downtown area is capable of, with working with the National Main Street Four Point Approach it is helping to make a vision of what downtown Vicksburg can be into what it should be – an inviting family friendly place that locals and tourists can enjoy and where small business can prosper and grow." says Main Street Chairman Kristen Meehan.

"We are very excited to receive this accreditation from the National Trust Main Street Center. It is a great honor and reward for all our downtown supporters, businesses, property owners, and volunteers, as well as the entire Vicksburg community, who have worked so hard to get where we are today. The Ten Criteria Report is something that we work towards year round. Each specific objective must be met in order to receive recognition. Through the board and committees hard work we are all able to accomplish our program goals. Our investment reports are pretty impressive, too. This past year alone we had $35,096,000.00 invested in downtown through public and private projects. We are doing our best to keep the downtown a vibrant piece of the community and are very proud to be recognized for those efforts," says Main Street Executive Director Kim Hopkins.

Established by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 1980, the National Main Street Center helps communities of all sizes revitalize their older and historic commercial districts. Working in more than 2,200 downtowns and urban neighborhoods over the last 32 years, the Main Street program has leveraged more than $55.7 billion in new public and private investment. Participating communities have created 473,535 net new jobs and 109,693 net new businesses, and rehabilitated more than 236,418 buildings, leveraging an average of $18 in new investment for every dollar spent on their Main Street district revitalization efforts.