GOSHEN MAIN STREET DESIGNATED AS A NATIONAL CERTIFIED MAIN STREET
Torrington, WY – On behalf of Main Street businesses throughout Goshen County, Goshen Economic Development began the process of becoming a National Certified Main Street three years ago. The process included the addition of events such as 3rd Thursday’s and expansion of existing events such as Holiday activities. National Main Street Certification creates national exposure, provides additional grant funding opportunities, and results in a cohesive community.
Main Street
It was an easy transition for Goshen Economic Development to focus on Main Street as this initiative was started years prior. Main Street businesses worked closely with Goshen Economic Development. Three years ago, businesses came to them with a need for a Main Street/Downtown Development Program. This started events like the 3rd Thursday on Main Street and expanding on the Christmas activities. Ultimately, after researching more effective ways to help Goshen County’s Main Streets Goshen Economic Development pursued the three-year process of becoming a National Certified Main Street. A certification would open doors for more grant funding, create national exposure, and a cohesive community.
The value of a Main Street program is already present in Goshen County. In every rural community, there is a consistent struggle. That struggle is to add jobs, retain the population, and stop retail leakage. In Goshen County where small business is big business, Goshen Economic Development and local businesses created Goshen Main Street as a locally-led, community-driven effort to protect and enhance our rural community. The goal was to strengthen our economy, provide a better quality of life and build on our local assets. The need was extremely necessary for the preservation of our local businesses and community.
The Main Street Program empowers communities to determine their own destinies, offering a road map for how to get there. Across the country, thousands of communities have successfully used these tools to locally transform their economies, leverage leadership, and improve their overall quality of life.
Goshen Main Street is the heart of eastern Wyoming, thriving with family-friendly events, shopping, great restaurants, and enriched pioneer history.
The Main Street program is structured by a 4-point approach. The Main Street Four-Point Approach is a community-driven and common-sense way to address a variety of issues and problems facing traditional business districts. The Main Street approach advocates a return to community self-reliance, local empowerment, and the rebuilding of traditional commercial districts based on unique assets such as distinctive architecture, a pedestrian-friendly environment, personal service, local ownership, and a sense of place. The underlying premise of the Main Street approach is to encourage economic development within the context of historic preservation. Goshen Main Street ensures the continuation of events and beautification/preservation of our historic downtowns and to preserve and enhance Goshen County in the following ways:
Design. Enhancing the physical elements of downtown while capitalizing on the unique assets that set the commercial district apart.
Economic Vitality. Making the most communities unique sense of place and existing historic assets, harnessing local economic opportunity, and creating a supportive business environment for small business owners and the growing scores of entrepreneurs, innovators, and locals alike.
Promotion. Position the downtown as the center of the community and the hub of economic activity while creating a positive image that showcases the community's unique characteristics.
Organization. Ensuring that all organizational resources (partners, funding, volunteers, etc.) are mobilized to effectively implement the Community Transformation Strategies.
ABOUT MAIN STREET AMERICA
Main Street America has been helping revitalize older and historic commercial districts for more than 35 years. Today, it is a network of more than 1,600 neighborhoods and communities, rural, and urban, who share both a commitment to place and to building stronger communities through preservation-based economic development. Since 1980, communities participating in the program have leveraged more than $79.12 billion in new public and private investment generated 640,017 net new jobs and 143,613 net new businesses and rehabilitated more than 284,936 buildings. Main Street America is a program of the nonprofit National Main Street Center, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
