After several months of work, Newton Main Street established their goals and objectives for the next year and beyond. Working in four committees, projects within the objectives were identified after getting input from several different sources in the community and state.
“We feel like we have done our best to get input from as many different stakeholders and viewpoints as possible,” Andrew Bassman, director of Newton Main Street said. Earlier in the year, the public was invited to give input on what potential projects they thought were the most important and deserved the most attention. Bassman also worked with Main Street Iowa to get tips and advice from them and other communities.
“I was given sort of a checklist for what each committee typically works on,” Bassman said.
Main Street worked with the city through the comprehensive plan to see which items may fall in line with their objectives.
“We’ve talked with city staff on what sort of stuff they would like to see Main Street do,” Bassman said. With all of the information and input from the public, city and state, committee members began work on their goals, objectives and projects within those objectives.
“All of the projects had to meet the objectives established with the help of Main Street Iowa and approved by the Main Street board of directors,” Bassman said.
Each project has a project manager who will oversee the planning, work and completion of the project. The manager has to fill out a work plan which will give a step by step of how they will approach the task, what the cost will be and when they plan on having it completed.
“I think it is pretty ambitious, but I think that’s good,” Bassman said of the plans the committees made.
The organization committee set a goal of establishing a strong, well-known program that utilizes a growing number of participants in implementing and funding the program. The committee set two big tasks for the coming year.
First, to create an overall public relations strategy. They want to create a Main Street website, establish a social media strategy, have frequent public presentations, distribute a quarterly newsletter and work with the media to spotlight goods and services offered by District businesses.
Second, to work on volunteer recruitment and retention.
“We have a great group of volunteers now ... but we need to make sure they stick around and we need to get more people involved so we don’t wear everybody out. We’d like to see more young people involved, too,” Bassman said.
The committee also plans on having a few more fun fundraiser after their Newton’s Magnetic Main Street Promotion was a sold-out success.
“We have pledges for funding for the first three years of the program,” Bassman said, but he said they need to start planning for years four and five.
Look for continued coverage of the Newton Main Street committee plans in Monday’s Newton Daily News.
Contact Staff Writer Jamee A. Pierson at (641) 792-3121 ext. 6534 or jpierson@newtondailynews.com.