Bay City Recognized with National Main Street Title Heather Menzies, Bay City Tribune | 12-Nov-2009
Prestigious Recognition A Benefit for Tourism
Bay City was recently named a 2010 National Main Street City and recognized for their accomplishment by The Texas Historical Commission (THC) and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Bay City Mayor Richard Knapik was one of the first to congratulate Bay City's Main Street program's staff and volunteer board of directors on the accomplishment.
"This is just adding more prestige to Bay City being selected from all of the Main Street programs for this recognition," said Knapik.
"Congratulations go to D.C. (Dunham, co-director of Bay City Main Street program), Gail (Conner) and Karen (Hitzfeld, co-director of Bay City Main Street program) for working so hard to put this together."
In order to achieve the recognition, each year Main Street programs are required to submit a report on their progress in 10 main areas that focus on planning, staff and volunteers, preservation ethic, training and program assessment.
Knapik said the Bay City Main Street program earned an impressive 96 of 100 possible points on their annual report.
The evaluators commented on several aspects they considered highlights of Bay City's Main Street program, such as: the success of the facade grant program; the "Do you know" newspaper column; utilizing a high school intern from DECA; and rescuing historic rose bushes and re-planting them in Liberty Park.
Gertrude Hardy, Bay City Main Street board chairperson, said being recognized as a National Main Street city will benefit them in more tangible ways that just bragging rights.
"It will certainly bring in tourist trade," she said.
"People are going to want to come in and see what we've done and when they do they'll no doubt spend money in our stores and stay in our hotels."
While this isn't the first year Bay City has been a nationally recognized Main Street city, Knapik said garnering the impressive score from the national committee only means that the Main Street program is making Bay City's downtown district more successful.
"A lot of hard work goes into achieving this recognition. Main Street communities exemplify the Texas mystique and this recognition honors the many people, including Main Street managers and volunteers, who put in countless hours to make their Main Street programs work. The result is an active and successful downtown revitalization effort that benefits not only the Main Street district, but also the entire community," said Debra Farst, state coordinator of the Texas Main Street Program.
Bay City was honored at the recent Texas Downtown Association/Texas Main Street Conference in Tyler.
Dunham and Hitzfeld will attend The National Trust for Historic Preservation's National Main Street Center when Bay City is honored at the 2010 National Main Streets Conference to be held in Oklahoma City in May.
Dunham, Hitzfeld and Conner are the staff members of Bay City's Main Street program.
The volunteer board of directors are: Hardy, Alice Lowery, Ernie Cunnar, Mary Francis Hatchet, Fran Baker, Carol Ann Huitt. Article from Heather Menzies with the Bay City Tribune
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