Paula Lochridge, the 45-year-old radio personality turned Main Street manager, remembered the first time she went on the air.
"I was 20," she said. "It was a remote location, and the DJ didn't show up, so the general manager put me on."
Lochridge, who studied telecommunications in college, said the gig didn't win her the truant DJ's job, but landed her some late-night air time and some other gigs that eventually led her to a 13-year career with Reno's K-Bull 98.1 FM, most notably as Paula Dunn on the Woody and Paula Wake up Show.
"I really miss Woody. He was such a sweetheart," Lochridge said, "but I needed something more fulfilling and more challenging."
That something was a program manager position with the nascent Main Street Gardnerville revitalization program.
"I saw the job description, researched it, and it seemed exciting," Lochridge said.
Gardnerville Town Manager Jim Park said the program manager is responsible for implementing the organization's strategic plan, fostering a cooperative atmosphere among stake holders, and representing the district to various agencies and the greater Gardnerville and Carson Valley communities, among other things.
Save a three-year detour in Phoenix, Lochridge has lived in Carson Valley since 1994.
"I love Carson Valley," she said. "It's been my home so long, and I wanted to be part of something great."
On Feb. 11, Lochridge was in her new office in the town hall building downtown. The day before she had been in Sacramento for a conference of California Main Street programs.
"We're the first program in Nevada," she said. "We're tagging onto the California programs."
Main Street Gardnerville was founded in 2008 with seed money from the Douglas County Commission and the Gardnerville Town Board. It's part of the national Main Street program, established in the 1980s by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
The revitalization program uses a four-pillar approach, focusing on organization, promotion, design and economic restructuring. It emphasizes reinvestment in town cores, the preservation of historic elements and the development of local economies.
"You try to get businesses and residents to work together to make it a better place," Lochridge said.
Lochridge was confident that her background in broadcasting would help her come up with events and other ways to promote the town.
"I have a lot of ideas, especially coming from radio and promotion, that will benefit the community," she said.
Most recently, the Main Street program used Valentine's Day to sell street flower baskets, which will be hung from lamp posts along Highway 395 in the summer.
Lochridge said she'll use the Internet as a tool to attract outside visitors, but will also focus on attracting locals back to the town core.
"We want people to know what Gardnerville has to offer," she said. "Our goal is to have people come down and check out the businesses."
Lochridge said some of the program's greater challenges will be figuring out how to rehabilitate historical buildings and how to make streets and sidewalks more pedestrian-friendly.
She noted that Main Street is a nonprofit program and that fundraising will be difficult in shaky economic times.
"The doors are always open and we'd love for the community to be involved in the project," she said. "We can't please everyone, but we all have the same goal " we all want a beautiful, thriving community."
The Main Street Gardnerville board, which currently has one vacancy, meets 6:30 p.m. the third Wednesday of each month at the Gardnerville Town Hall, 1407 Highway 395.
The organization also has four volunteer committees, one for each pillar of the program.
To volunteer, call 782-7134. For more information, visit www.mainstreetgardnerville.org.
