Huntington earns downtown designation

HUNTINGTON, IND. (WANE) - An initiative announced Thursday aims to get the economy rolling in some of Indiana's smaller towns, specifically in regards to the downtown areas.

“It truly is the welcome mat,” said Indiana Lt. Governor Becky Skillman .

She says that’s why the state has been working for years to make sure downtown areas continue to thrive. In fact, since 1985, the “Indiana Main Street” program has worked to do just that.

Thursday afternoon, the City of Huntington received that designation.

A sign hanging in downtown Huntington reads, “Shop, Dine, and Relax”.

For years, city leaders have hoped you'll do that in the various shops and restaurants in downtown Huntington .

"Downtown hasn't changed much in the past 8 years, and so we started a program a few years ago with downtown merchants called Look Up, Clean Up," said Huntington Mayor Steve Updike.

Now that program will have some extra help with the "Indiana Main Street" designation. That means it'll now be eligible to apply for several grants, while also receiving free assistance from the state.

Since the Indiana Main Street program started in 1985, $4 billion has been raised to help the program; $2.6 of that came from private funds.

The program has helped attract some 2,800 new businesses, which created 17,000 jobs statewide. Additionally, the state says that’s made for 1,200 new construction projects and 5,400 renovation projects.

While some of those jobs have made a relocation necessary, the state estimates 5,100 new homes have been built due to the program alone.

"The state works with every community that has this designation," said Indiana Lt. Governor Becky Skillman.

That will continue this year, despite a dark forecast for state finances.

"Like other states, our revenue has continued to decline month after month, so throughout state government, we have to be very creative and innovative and so we look for a lot of private partners who help us with some of the state programming that helps communities," Skillman said.

Indiana Main Street is administered by the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs . The program provides assistance to participating Indiana cities and towns for economic development efforts in their local downtown and commercial business districts.

Huntington joins more than 90 other Indiana Main Street communities dedicated to the revitalization of their downtown communities. The program is founded on a community-driven “Four Point Approach” to downtown development: organization, design, promotion and economic restructuring.

At this time, Huntington is not receiving any money, but instead is eligible to apply for things like the “Downtown Enhancement Grant.” Right now, Huntington will receive technical assistance, educational opportunities and networking through OCRA.

City leaders say their goals are to promote downtown Huntington as a destination place, establish downtown Huntington as an economically viable marketplace, develop economic tools and resources that will assist with redevelopment and rehabilitation in the downtown, and rehabilitation of historic buildings located within the downtown district.