Main Street program Oct. 24
A Main Street 101 presentation will be held at 5:30 p.m. on the third floor of city hall on Monday, Oct. 24, for residents and the business community to learn more about how the Main Street program could work to revitalize Guttenberg. The mission of the Main Street Iowa Program is to improve the social and economic well-being of Iowa's communities by assisting selected communities to capitalize on the unique identity, assets and character of their historic commercial district.
Last December, the Iowa Downtown Resource Center of Des Moines conducted an assessment on the downtown. The assessment visit and recommendations serve as a call to action and provide the community with current information for formulating strategies to address the serious issue of saving the downtown for future generations. While useful, this assessment was not associated with the Main Street program.
Jim Engle, Director of the Iowa Downtown Resource Center, will be in Guttenberg to talk about the program. Main Street is a national program developed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Main Street Center in 1980 with the goal of economic development within the context of historic preservation. Currently, more than 40 states and 1600 communities implement this downtown revitalization program. In Iowa, Main Street is administered by the Iowa Economic Development Authority. The program brings technical assistance to the 52 participating communities.
In 2017, the Iowa Economic Development Association will be holding an application process to bring more Iowa communities into the program.
The Main Street Program follows a four-point approach, the purpose of which is to establish historic commercial districts as economically viable centers of commerce through comprehensive, incremental, and coordinated work in four key areas: organization, promotion, design, and economic restructuring. Participants develop organizations with a board of directors, four committees and an executive director to lead the charge. Services to participating communities include free design assistance, business counseling, workshops, board development training and technical assistance in areas such as business recruitment, promotional planning, historic preservation, fundraising, and more.
Public Art Project
Northeast Iowa RC&D will hold a public forum to provide information and collect feedback related to a grant received from the National Foundation for the Arts which would provide funding for public artwork in Guttenberg.
The proposed project should stimulate cultural tourism and describe the community's character. Committee members have proposed a series of fish sculptures on light poles on the east side of River Park Drive in the downtown shopping district. Umbrella Arts Chair Juanita Loven will accept comments for a period of two weeks following this publication regarding whether the community would prefer to see realistic fish, fantasy fish, or a mixture of both.
Guttenberg is expected to raise $5,000 to match $5,000 from the Byways of Iowa Foundation for the project to go forward. Umbrella Arts has generously agreed to match the first $2,500 donated, and will be accepting donations by mail at P.O. Box 610, Guttenberg, or at the Oct. 24 meeting. Checks can be made out to Umbrella Arts and comments can be emailed to Juanita Loven at lovenrj@alpinecom.net.
