Montana Main Street – An Update:

It is difficult to believe that Christmas is just around the corner. It
seems like only yesterday I was looking forward to fall arriving.
Montana Main Street would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and the
most prosperous possible 2007.

Our six designated Main Street communities recently reported their third
quarter statistics. They continue to reveal the positive economic
advantages of the Main Street program. The following are Main Street
statistics for the first three quarters of 2006:

# Promotions: 52

$ in Promotions: $48,794

# Public Improvements: 21

$ in Public Improvements:
$702,297

# Building Improvements: 53

$ in Building Improvements:
$2,859,313

# New Construction: 4

$ in New Construction:
$1,845,000

Net New Businesses: +42

Net New Jobs: +98

Volunteer Hours: 3,780

On the budget front, the news is good. Montana Main Street has been
included in the Governor’s budget for 2008/2009 as a continuing entity
in the Department of Commerce. Assuming the legislature supports the
Governor’s proposal, we will continue to bring the Main Street approach
to Montana. All of you can help in this regard by talking with your
individual legislators and asking them to support Montana Main Street
during the upcoming session.

Over the past couple months, a group of students under direction of the
faculty at the Small Business Institute of the University of Montana
assisted Montana Main Street by conducting a Market Analysis in three of
our Main Street communities. They reported the results last weekend.
They did an excellent job and provided some very valuable information to
the communities. I encourage all to learn of the services available to
small businesses and communities through our fine universities and use
those services to your community’s advantage.

I am currently working on a Program Calendar for 2007. Tentatively, I
am including some open Main Street training sessions at a number of
locations in the spring and Application Workshops around the state in
the early fall. If you have any ideas or suggestions for topics and/or
locations, please feel free to drop me a note.

One last item; a reminder. The 2007 National Main Streets Conference
takes place March 25-28, 2007 in Seattle, Washington. This conference
will never be physically closer to us than this opportunity.

I
encourage all of you to try to find ways to attend through ride-sharing,
room-sharing, etc. Information regarding the Conference is available at
http://conference.mainstreet.org.

As we close out 2006 and begin 2007, I know all of you will continue,
and even accelerate, your economic development and historic preservation
efforts. Our communities deserve nothing less than our best efforts.
Thank you for all you have done and all you continue to do.

Merry
Christmas!

One last personal request. Please keep our deployed troops and their
families in your thoughts as we celebrate the Holiday Season.

Mel

Mel Walters, Coordinator

Montana Main Street

Small Business Development Center

Montana Department of Commerce

406-841-2756 (W)

406-461-6801 (C)

[email protected]

Fax: 406-841-2728