TILLAMOOK — Oregon Main Street announced its 2019 “Excellence in Downtown Revitalization” award winners this evening at the awards event in Tillamook, Oregon. The awards event kicks off the Oregon Main Street Conference, Oct. 2-4. A total of twenty businesses, projects, and people were recognized, including Reedsport Main Street Program’s #TuesdaysOnTheTown social media campaign for Best Downtown Image Activity. Reedsport’s #TuesdaysOnTheTown was a Facebook campaign to promote the businesses on Main Street through interviewing business owners about their lives, their business and how it came to be, what it means to be a business owner on Main Street, and why they chose Reedsport. Reedsport Main Street assembled them in a narrative format that mimics the popular “humans of New York” Facebook page. Its target audiences are local residents and regional visitors. The pilot #TuesdaysOnTheTown post is the most interacted posted in the history of Reedsport Main Street plateauing at 1,625 engagements and reaching 3,900 organically. All of the businesses that have participated to date have reported receiving in-person positive feedback and visitation prompted by the post. 10 other towns in Oregon were honored with awards. “The award winners serve as inspiration to communities across our Network and reflect some of the highest level of revitalization success,” said Sheri Stuart, state coordinator, Oregon Main Street. “We are so inspired to see how our historic downtowns across Oregon are coming to life through the creativity, passion, and plain hard work of community members.” The wide range of awards is reflective of the comprehensive Main Street Approach® to downtown revitalization developed by the National Main Street Center. This model is used by the communities participating in the three-tier Main Street Track of Oregon Main Street Network. From 2010 to 2018, communities participating in the Performing Main Street and Transforming Downtown levels – the top two tiers – have seen $97,901,913 in private building improvement projects, $104,225,575 in public projects, 1,106 private rehab projects, 650 net new businesses, and 3,226 net new jobs. In addition, over 207,000 hours of volunteer time has been contributed to local main street organizations. Oregon Main Street is part of Oregon Heritage, Oregon Parks and Recreation Department. For additional information, visit www.oregonmainstreet.org.
