San Luis, the oldest town in Colorado, decided to start the process to become an official Main Street community when Susan Sanderford, Town Manager, noticed that nothing had been done in the downtown area for years.
“In the past 20 years, we had lost businesses due to retirement, and there were no improvements in the downtown area, and so we wanted to focus on developing Main Street to improve and revitalize it,” she said.
Moving from the Aspiring level to the official Achieving level would allow the town to earn more grants and develop a team to make the program work.
San Luis became an Aspiring Community of the Main Street Program several years ago, but officially started becoming an official Achieving Community in the spring of 2020. Susan rallied together a committee, got a historic preservation ordinance in place, and went through training. Colorado Main Street provided a workshop to the committee, technical assistance to develop a strategic plan and establish a solid foundation, and soon thereafter, San Luis completed all the steps to apply officially. San Luis was accepted as an official Main Street in July 2021.
Susan’s advice for future Main Street Managers is to understand that you have many requirements – reports to write, workshops to attend, national conferences, and communication. It may seem daunting at first, “but now that I’m more comfortable with the process, I’m excited about it!” Remember that you have a support network within the program!