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Main Street Beatrice reports new downtown businesses, events and grant bid to council
Summary
Main Street Beatrice presented its third-quarter report to the Beatrice City Council, reporting six recent business openings, attendance figures for two events, ongoing downtown inventory work and an application for a $50,000 T‑Mobile grant to fund lights, fencing and mural lighting.
Virginia, a representative of Main Street Beatrice, told the Beatrice City Council she handed out the organization’s third-quarter report and highlighted recent downtown activity, including business openings, event attendance and a pending grant application.
The report, Virginia said, shows six recent downtown business openings (All Year Long Store, Muse of Yoga, Revival Salon Collective, ZOLL’s Soul Food, Vintage Sisters and Campbell’s Country Store) and four new business inquiries in planning stages. She said a downtown newsletter has about 1,500 subscribers and that Main Street is tracking progress on a downtown business directory and building inventory.
The nut of the presentation was activity and outreach: Main Street reported two recent events — a beer-and-wine festival on May 3 with 247 registered attendees (top sources: Beatrice, Lincoln and Marysville, Kan.) and Ribfest on June 21 with 643 attendees and a barbecue contest. Virginia said heat-related cancellations reduced vendor participation and that attendance for Ribfest was “down about 50” from expectations but feedback remained positive.
Main Street is pursuing a $50,000 T‑Mobile grant, Virginia said, to pay for additional Christmas lights, event fencing and alley mural lighting; she said the grant is all-or-nothing. She also described training workshops on July 28 and Aug. 25 and said Main Street had partnered with Main Street Nebraska to advance a building inventory (about 46% complete) and that 50% completion is targeted for the downtown directory construction.
Virginia described other outreach and promotions: coloring-page outreach to schools, youth entrepreneurship opportunities at Rivfest (where two local girls ran a lemonade stand), monthly newsletters, and tracking available commercial properties for lease or sale in the back page of the newsletter.
Council members asked clarifying questions about the downtown directory (Virginia said it will be publicly accessible and organized by business category) and whether the T‑Mobile grant can be awarded at partial funding (Virginia replied it is all-or-nothing). She identified five ongoing commercial-property inquiries and three properties undergoing renovation.
Ending: Virginia said upcoming events include Taste of Downtown on Aug. 23 from 1 to 5 p.m.; the date for Night of the Great Pumpkin will be set at an upcoming board meeting.
