By Cortez Mayor Joe Keck

Maintaining a viable Main Street business district is an ever increasing challenge. The competitive pressures on small business (mom-and-pops) from the big box retailers and Internet sales is increasing each year. Finding a community strategy that helps to maintain a viable Main Street business district is usually very difficult to do. One approach that many communities around the nation have selected is the Main Street approach as developed by the National Main Street Center. This approach includes developing a Main Street Plan with four components.

The major components include design (improvements in the appearance of Main Street through façade enhancements, landscaping, etc.), promotion (developing events and promotions based along Main Street which bring in more business activity), organization/finance (setting up a Main Street business organization and funding mechanisms), and economic restructuring (targeting the types of businesses, housing, offices, etc. which are needed to keep diversity in our downtowns).

The Main Street development approach has proved effective in many communities across the nation. Typically, Main Street community projects leverage $35 of private investment for every $1 of public investment. In Colorado, Delta, Durango, and Grand Junction are three west slope communities which participated in the Colorado Main Street Program during the early 1980s. The Colorado Main Street Program is being started again by the Colorado Community Revitalization Association (CCRA). CCRA will, over the course of the next few months, be selecting four Colorado communities to participate in a four year project geared toward not only saving our Main Street’s business diversity, but also enhancing it.

Like most communities in Colorado, Cortez will be eligible to apply to be designated a Main Street community. The process includes receiving assistance from a resource team of people who have had success in developing Main Street programs elsewhere. The team will work with local businesses through our local Main Street Association to develop and implement a Main Street Plan. To be successful, this initiative will need the support of the business community, the City, and the community at large. There will also be several requirements of the local community to demonstrate their interest and commitment to the project. One will be the need to provide a local Main Street coordinator, which we currently have in place.