Gov. Bev Perdue announced Friday that five North Carolina towns have been selected to participate in the N.C. Small Town Main Street Program, an initiative for small and rural towns that focuses on creating new jobs and investment by helping revitalize downtown areas. The newest participating towns are Bessemer City, Troutman, Warrenton, Lillington and Pittsboro.
“Revitalizing downtown means creating jobs by helping grow local small businesses and attracting investments. Our successful Main Street programs have proven that,” Gov. Perdue said. “Main Streets are not just physically at the center of small towns across North Carolina. They are the center of economic life.”
The North Carolina Small Town Main Street program is designed to provide downtown revitalization assistance to small towns (under 7,500 populations) that are not likely, due to size or resource limitations, to pursue the regular North Carolina Main Street program. Admittance into the Small Town Main Street program is through an annual, competitive application process.
The towns selected are given concentrated on-site and on-call technical services by the N.C. Main Street Center within the N.C. Department of Commerce. As with the regular Main Street program, the Small Town Main Street program follows the Four-Point Approach® methodology that was created by the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s National Main Street Center®. The Four-Point Approach® incorporates Organization, Design, Promotion and Economic Restructuring initiatives.
With this latest round of selections there are now 36 communities actively participating in the N.C. Small Town Main Street Program. If you would like more information, visit www.nccommerce.com/MainStreet.