The Oklahoma Main Street Center announced today that Stillwater, and Woodward, Okla., are the newest additions to the Oklahoma Main Street Program for 2019. Downtown Stillwater Association and Woodward Main Street rejoin the program at the associate level.
“The Oklahoma Main Street Center is happy to welcome Stillwater and Woodward back into the state Main Street program,” said Oklahoma Main Street Center Director Buffy Hughes. “We look forward to working with the volunteers, the boards and the communities.”
The Main Street Program is a comprehensive revitalization effort that provides communities with tools to improve their historic central and neighborhood business district areas. The Oklahoma Main Street program serves as the state coordinating program for Main Street America, a program of the National Main Street Center, Inc. The Oklahoma Department of Commerce oversees the state Main Street Program.
The associate level is a two-year endeavor to build capacity toward operation of the fully designated Main Street program. Both Stillwater and Woodward will have access to limited Main Street services including training and technical assistance for preservation-based commercial district revitalization, as well as have limited Main Street requirements. The goal of the associate level is to work toward building capacity to build the organization that will lead the community into more successful downtown development.
Stillwater and Woodward will receive leadership training for their program directors and boards of directors, as well as training in the nationally recognized Four-Point Main Street approach of organization, promotion, design and economic vitality, Hughes added.
According to latest figures, Oklahoma Main Street communities have generated more than $1.73 billion in total public and private reinvestment, created more than 19,100 new jobs and helped in the development of more than 5,500 new or expanded small businesses.
For more information about the Oklahoma Main Street Program, please call (405) 815-6552 or visit OKcommerce.gov/mainstreet.
About Main Street America
Main Street America has been helping revitalize older and historic commercial districts for more than 35 years. Today it is a network of more than 1,600 neighborhoods and communities, rural and urban, who share both a commitment to place and to building stronger communities through preservation-based economic development.
