Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Economic Development topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Main Street presents downtown inventory, events and grant efforts; raises funds for children's mural
Summary
Main Street Beatrice reported a completed downtown building inventory, vacancy and use statistics, upcoming events and a resubmitted $50,000 grant application; it has raised $2,476.12 for a children's community mural.
Virginia, representing Main Street Beatrice, presented the organization's quarterly report to the council, summarizing downtown building inventory results, business outreach, recent events and grant activity.
Virginia said the organization completed its goal of inventorying 50% of the downtown district buildings and reported it reached 100% of that goal. The report used data from the Booms Tracker tool and listed 312 parcels in the downtown district with 229 parcels having buildings, 78 buildings with vacancies and 66 buildings needing maintenance or repair. The packet also listed 47 buildings described as historically or architecturally significant and 199 identified businesses in the downtown area. Virginia cautioned that some Booms Tracker outputs (for example, counts of potential housing units and some vacancy figures) appeared low compared with local knowledge.
Virginia told the council that Main Street completed its E3 awards, conducted 75 business visits and ran two business-training workshops on July 28 and Aug. 25 with positive feedback. She said the organization has circulated a printed downtown business directory that will also be uploaded to the city website when technical details for the site refresh are resolved.
On fundraising and public art, Virginia reported Main Street had raised $2,476.12 for a community "Children's Paint-by-Number" mural planned for the retaining wall on Fourth Street adjacent to the city office building. She said the project was intended to give youth a public-art opportunity.
Virginia also said Main Street resubmitted a $50,000 T-Mobile grant application after being declined in the previous round. She described the prior application as containing multiple small items (Christmas lights, event fencing, alley mural lighting) and said successful applicants appeared to propose larger single projects; the grant result was expected by the end of the month.
Virginia described recent events including Chocolate Lovers (completed), the Taste of Downtown on Aug. 23 (13 businesses participated; registrants included 33 attendees from Beatrice and a small number from Lincoln, Pickrell, Auburn and other nearby towns) and the Night of the Great Pumpkin scheduled for Oct. 23 from 5 to 7 p.m. She said participating businesses reported increased customer traffic during downtown events.
Councilmembers asked clarifying questions about how the Booms Tracker classifies vacancies and upper-floor units; Virginia acknowledged some outputs appeared to undercount units and said local inputs were used for inventory.
Ending: The council received the report; Main Street will continue business recruitment, event planning and grant pursuits and will provide the next quarterly update in January.
