An improved downtown Gardnerville is attainable, and members of the town's new Main Street program are creating a vision that will guide the process.
"We know what the community wants to see, but implementing it, getting there, that's the tough part," said Main Street board member Margaret Pross. "There's no overnight solution. It will take the whole community to make it work."
The Main Street program was established in the 1980s by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Currently, more than 2,000 towns across the country subscribe to the revitalization philosophy, which encourages investment in historic town cores, rather than peripheral suburbs.
Pross, a Gardnerville resident, wanted to be part of the Main Street effort after witnessing firsthand what the program did for a small Illinois town named Libertyville.
"It used to be a town people routinely passed through," she said. "It wound up with a lot of empty store fronts and didn't look so nice."
For 18 years, Pross lived in a bedroom community next to Libertyville, a bedroom community with no historic downtown.
"By the time we moved away, Libertyville was a thriving community," she said. "They had built up their shops and new businesses were coming in. Everyone wanted to stop there. That's what we are trying to achieve in downtown Gardnerville."
At their Sept. 17 meeting, the Main Street Board of Directors worked on developing goals for their strategic plan, following the program's four-pillar approach: Organization, promotion, design and economic restructuring.
The first order of businesses was developing a budget process aligned with the town's and the county's budget timelines.
"As it stands, you have a $75,000 budget," Gardnerville Town Manager Jim Park told members.
Main Street was seeded $25,000 from the Town of Gardnerville and $50,000 from Douglas County. The budget is expected to grow with continued grants and revenue generated from reinvestment.
Moving to economic restructuring and design, board members discussed soliciting local banks for a revolving loan pool that could assist downtown property owners with major renovations.
"Once we have the tools to help, we need to get the word on the street," said Main Street consultant Tim Rubald. "I think we'll be surprised how many people come forward."
Other design efforts may include assisting the Town of Gardnerville with street improvements: Signs, benches, banners and kiosks.
Board members discussed expanding the hanging flower basket program. Currently, Douglas High School agricultural classes provide 35 flower baskets that are hung along Highway 395 during the warm season.
"A lot of businesses are calling the office wanting to buy one," Park said.
The most challenging goal before the board may lie in promotion, in recruiting about 75 volunteers to help with events and serve on four different committees, one committee for each Main Street pillar.
"We are starting to see how much work this program is," Park said.
People interested in volunteering should call the Gardnerville Town Office at 782-7134.
