Downtown getting warmer, cozier

Scott Swanson

Been downtown lately? If you were there for the Christmas Parade Saturday, you may have noticed that there seemed to be quite a bit of activity on the streets afterwards – more so than usual.

That was by design and it’s the result of a lot of work by people whose efforts I think a lot of us have become more familiar with this year, whether we realize it or not.

That would be the Sweet Home Active Revitalization Effort (SHARE) Program and Marketing Committee and our Chamber of Commerce.

This week’s Warm and Cozy Tour (see page 3) is the culmination of the committee’s efforts this year, led by Economic Development Director Brian Hoffman and committee Chair Nancy Patton and her team.

By way of full disclosure, I remind readers that I am involved in SHARE as a Steering Committee member, which means I don’t have a lot of hands-on connection with most of what we’re talking about here . Mainly, we Steering Committee types just try to keep the ball rolling and address whatever challenges come up and stay out of other people’s ways so they can do what we can’t.

What that also means is that I can stand back and appreciate some of the progress that’s been made.

You may recall that it’s been almost three years since more than 100 Sweet Home citizens and businesspeople got together to make something happen to improve our local economy. We were a little ticked off after getting the cold shoulder from a couple of downtown renewal experts.

Well, things have happened.

This year, more than $90,000 worth of exterior improvements on downtown buildings and murals were triggered by $18,000 in grant funds, which came from the proceeds of the Oregon Jamboree.

Together, the Chamber of Commerce and SHARE volunteers – because SHARE is all volunteers except for two paid staffers – have worked on marketing the community, raising its profile in the world of tourism. The chamber has made improvements to its Web site, which has resulted in increased traffic and SHARE has developed a kiosk about what Sweet Home has to offer, which has been taken to travel and trade shows.

The very fact that Hoffman is among us is an indication that significant progress has been made. Yes, SHEDG had an economic development director previously but the vision now is much more defined and is becoming clearer, I believe, and it’s showing.

This year we’ve had two repeat events – the Downtown Salebration last summer, and this week’s Warm and Cozy Tour – that were sponsored and planned by SHARE, with improvements over the inaugural versions of 2009. The Programming and Marketing Committee also came up with the Stepping into Fall downtown shopping extravaganza, which really did turn out to be pretty much that. It was impressive and the people who participated had a good time.

The Warm and Cozy Tour is currently under way. Patton and her colleagues decided that limiting it to a single Saturday afternoon and evening, as it was last year, was inadequate. So they decided to go for a week-long format.

It’s a great deal for us, the shoppers, as well as the businesses. The idea is to encourage local residents to visit local retailers and service providers by giving them incentives to visit those businesses. Shoppers who want to participate can pick up cards and maps at participating businesses and can get those cards stamped at every business they visit. If they visit all 31 participating businesses in the Sweet Home and Foster areas, they qualify for a drawing for a grand prize of $500.

The beauty of it all is, when you go into some of the local shops and salons you might be surprised by what you find. I have been. (“Wow, I didn’t know we could get this stuff here in town…”) You have until Saturday afternoon to get going on this, if you haven’t already.

The other new wrinkle this year is the Christmas Lights Tour, which uses Dial-A-Buses to ferry passengers to the holiday displays created by various residents who have signed up to be on the tour. Riders get to vote for their favorite displays. It’s fun when you win by popular vote.

It has started off small, confined to the city limits so that the buses could be used, but it’s a great way to revive the holiday decorations competition that was held until it was discontinued a few years ago.

The good news is that the merchants say they are increasingly interested in participating and that’s the whole point of this: To help local business people build their business.

So as we enter the holiday season during a recession that hasn’t left some of us much to be cheerful about, on the local economic level progress is being made, slowly but surely, and that’s something we can all appreciate.

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