Bolivar officials and business owners are seeking a little help from their friends to transform the city’s downtown.
In December, members of the community and interested stakeholders finished their work with Drury University to develop ideas for improving the heart of the city, and they are now one of four cities preparing to launch a revitalization program through Branson-based Missouri Main Street Connection, a nonprofit serving historic districts.
Tracy Slagle, resource development coordinator for the city of Bolivar, said while the help of groups outside the immediate area is guiding its revitalization plan, improvements would be managed locally.
“Last year, we went to a workshop of Missouri Main Street to learn about its approach. It is really a grassroots approach. The city is just one of the members,” Slagle said. “The effort is led by the downtown association and volunteers from the community, so every stakeholder has a contribution to the program, which I think will really help make it a success.”
Currently, Missouri Main Street is working to improve four districts in cities across the state: Bolivar, California, Holden and Kansas City’s Vine Street District. According to
MoMainStreet.org, the organization in 2011 helped 11 communities secure $16.7 million in private investment for streetscape improvements, building rehabilitations and new construction, bringing 13 new businesses to the districts they serve and creating 117 new jobs.
MO Main Street and Drury helpSusan Sparks, president of the Bolivar Downtown Association, said Missouri Main Street serves as consultant to assist community groups through the formation of four committees dedicated to designing plans, identifying area for growth, promoting key events and keeping plans on track. On Feb. 19, interested volunteers can sign up to serve on one of the committees at a 6 p.m. meeting at the Main Street Event Center in Bolivar.
“This is the first town-hall meeting, so we will be basically explaining the four-part structure. We will probably set up flags for each of the four committees and let people gravitate toward the ones they think they’d be the most interested in,” Slagle said.
Last fall, Slagle said eight Drury students worked with Bolivar officials and business owners to develop long-range plans for downtown improvements. She said interest was high with between 60 and 85 people turning out for each of the student’s three workshops.
Slagle said suggestions from the Drury students included creating a local art district downtown, promoting the nine trails around the city and rerouting highways 83 and 32 that run through downtown Bolivar.
Drury has offered assistance to 54 Missouri community projects since 2000 through its community studio classes, which are part of its Center for Community Studies program, according to Jay Garrott, CCS director. He said the Drury program has been in place since 1984 and participated in an estimated 100 community projects.
Its efforts have taken flight, he said, after a 2007 partnership with the University of Missouri Extension service. Since then, it has helped with 25 community project efforts, assisting some cities such as Warsaw more than once.
In Bolivar, Garrott said his students held five public meetings to gather ideas for action on possible improvements to the downtown area. At the end of the semester, it presented its findings to the Visioning 2030 committee, which comprises business and community leaders and was established for the class.
Recommendations, Garrott said, were broad in nature.
“We were providing background research,” Garrott said. “The effort was intended to lay the groundwork for the visioning committee to continue after our departure to develop the city’s own vision for the future.”
Sparks, who is a member of the Visioning 2030 committee, said there is disagreement among many in the community regarding possible plans for diverting the interchange of highways 83 and 32 away from the town square. While semitrucks can cause congestion that keeps residents away from downtown, Highway 13 runs to the west of the city and many business owners have to fight to attract travelers between Springfield and Kansas City.
Bolivar’s efforts, Sparks said, began with the formation of the downtown association in 2009 while the recession was taking hold. In describing the need, she pointed to a long period where businesses in downtown Springfield “crashed and burned” after the Battlefield Mall was built before the area began to experience a resurgence. “We wanted to skip that,” she said.
To date, the group has raised money for downtown beautification through efforts such as selling food at August’s Downtown Bolivar Cruise-In. Now, unique flowerpots such as a 3-foot wooden tractor pot adorn the square area, but more can be done with the help of partners, Sparks said.
“It is not going to do the work for (us),” she said of Missouri Main Street’s influence, before noting, “We don’t have to reinvent the wheel.”
Slowing the DREAMDowntown revitalization efforts also have been in motion across Missouri in recent years through a state program dubbed the Downtown Revitalization and Economic Assistance for Missouri Initiative. DREAM partners are the Missouri Department of Economic Development, the Missouri Development Finance Board and Missouri Housing Development Commission. The initiative was formed in 2006 and has assisted 40 small- to midsize communities, including Ozark, Monett, Aurora and Neosho. State officials have said DREAM communities created at least $179 million in public investments, spurring $600 million in private investments through October 2010.
However, no new DREAM communities have been named since 2010, and the city of Strafford is awaiting its first investment since joining the program in 2008.
Strafford City Administrator Steve Bodenhamer said a final presentation on five years’ worth of consulting work from St. Louis-based Peckham Guyton Albers & Viets Inc. is scheduled March 7 at Strafford City Hall. PGAV works with DREAM communities as the technical service provider, but for how long is unclear.
Mike Weber, director of PGAV Planners, said he was unaware of DREAM’s future and referred program budget questions to the Missouri Development Finance Board. MDFB officials and DED Communications Director John Fougere did not respond by press time.
“There has not been any investments made either privately or on behalf of the city to address any of the strategic plan at this point,” Bodenhamer said. “I think once we have the strategic plan in place, then we would have a blueprint from which to work and private involvement would follow.”[[In-content Ad]]
