Spirit of Athens Meet and Greet
The 1st Spirit
of Athens Meet and Greet Meeting was held at the Lifelong Learning
Center Tuesday, July 19th. Teresa Higgins
the Hostess
for the meetings & member of the organization
committee
welcomed everyone to the first
Meet and Greet, explained more
about SOA,
and how to become involved in the organization. She continued, “by
having the meeting tonight
in a relaxed atmosphere, we hope to give individuals an opportunity to toss around ideas and to meet other members.”
Trisha Black, SOA
Executive Director, explained how the Main Street 4 Point Approach
program of Design, Organization, Promotions and Economics
Restructuring can revitalize downtown. By focusing on the 4 main
committees you can have an active downtown all while preserving your
historic areas.
Heather Thompson is the
"Design Committee" Chairperson. The downtown needs to present a good
first impression. Maintaining the exterior look, do a little
painting, repair or replace awnings, always keep sidewalks and
storefronts in their best physical appearance. The SOA façade grant
program, gives up to $1000 to allow downtown business owner the
opportunity to do improvements on the outside of their buildings,
they do have to qualify and are guidelines.
Letisha Brinkley,
Promotions Committee Chairperson – Promotions job is to help support
new business as well as established businesses, we want to draw
people in to downtown with events and activities . Our current
project in the works is a “Princess Day” downtown for girls ages
5-12. The Salons downtown will show the young ladies how to take
care of their nails and skin and give them a manicure and a hair
style. Another event to look forward to next year will be the "Easy
Street Festival"; we are looking to have some "Jazz" musical
entertainment. The Downtown Directory will also be made available
through the promotions committee.
Mac Martin, Economics
Restructuring Committee – This committee understands the economic
heath of the downtown, to help recruit businesses to the downtown.
This committee has performed a study of the inventory of downtown, a
15 block area, from Hobbs Street to Green Street, and from Clinton
to Madison. With this information can report how many businesses
are in our down district, how many people are employed, what type of
businesses, how many buildings are vacant etc. It gives us a better
understanding of what types of businesses we need to look to recruit
downtown.
Diane Lehr, Organization
Committee Chairperson, Diane explained, “the organization committee
is the nerve center of the committees, we integrate with the other
committees, we host the annual meeting which is our '"Spirit Award
Luncheon," where we award organizations, individuals & volunteers
who have made the downtown more outstanding. Our committee recruits
volunteers, does fundraising, works on memberships and will be
hosting the volunteer meeting which will be held every other month.
Lehr pointed out an
untouchable factor about our town, our Athens heritage,
“Other areas are trying to imitate what we already have, trying to
create an area where you can walk to schools, churches and walk to
restaurants and shops but here we have the stories and
the history go along with our downtown, you are not starting from
there (new trying to look historic) and going forward.
During the question and
answer, Debbie Rutherford, a northern transplant, remembered hearing
several years ago about the possibility of loft apartments, and if
that interest had died? Black responded, “the city adopted the 2009
national fire codes, which has strict fire codes for sprinkler
systems, property owners will have to spend a great deal of money to
just get the sprinkler systems up to code. We are looking at what we
can do to help offset some of the expenses.
Another great question
was about the old empty and run down buildings called “Box Car Café”
section of Market Street, Black responded, “the buildings are on the
national registry, and if possible we need to save them.”
Black then posed the
question "What do you love about Athens?"
Village Pizza
To sit outside in front
of the Courthouse
Movies around the
square/park
What businesses would
like to see come Downtown?
Sidewalk cafes
Farmers Market (vegetable
and fruits)
If you
would like to attend our next Meet and Greet Meeting....
Look for information on the next Meet and
Greet Members Meeting on
AthensPlus and on Spirit of Athens Facebook!
A tentative Meeting is set for September 20th
6PM at Lifelong Learning Center
Teresa Todd
AthensPlus.com
Vice President Spirit of Athens
July 19th 2011
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