SMS Receives 2023 Main Street America Accreditation

May 2023

 Seymour Main Street has been designated as an Accredited Main Street America™ program for meeting rigorous performance standards. Each year, Main Street America and its partners announce the list of Accredited programs to recognize their exceptional commitment to preservation-based economic development and community revitalization through the Main Street Approach™.

“We are very proud to acknowledge this year’s 862 Accredited Main Street America programs, and their steadfast dedication to nurture economically and culturally vibrant downtown districts,” said Hannah White, Interim President & CEO of Main Street America. “The increase in the size and impact of our network speaks volumes to the power of the Main Street movement to respond to the needs of local communities and drive innovative solutions.”

In 2022, Main Street America programs generated $6.2 billion in local reinvestment, helped open 7,657 net new businesses, facilitated the creation of 29,174 net new jobs, catalyzed the rehabilitation of 10,688 historic buildings, and leveraged 1,528,535 volunteer hours. On average, for every dollar that a Main Street program spent to support their operations, it generated $24.07 of new investment back into their downtown communities.

Collectively, 2 million people live or work within the boundaries of designated Main Street America districts. An estimated workforce of 1.1 million people contributes their skills and expertise to advancing the missions of these historic downtowns and commercial corridors.

Seymour Main Street’s performance is annually evaluated by Indiana Main Street which works in partnership with Main Street America to identify the local programs that meet rigorous national performance standards. To quality for Accreditation status, communities must meet a set of rigorous standards that include commitments to building grassroots revitalization programs, fostering strong public-private partnerships, nurturing economic opportunity for small businesses and entrepreneurs, and actively preserving historic places, spaces, and cultural assets.

“Refresh and refocus” were the areas of focus for 2022.  Our Historic Downtown Seymour gained twelve (12) new businesses in 2022, while three (3) closed and two (2) relocated outside of the Downtown area. Downtown Seymour has four (4) additional buildings transforming to active spaces in 2023 and a reactivation of one (1) building vacated that occurred within the last year.  Furthermore, in 2022 Seymour Main Street partnered with over fifty (50) local businesses to host fourteen (14) events and Seymour Main Steet reported over one thousand (1,000) volunteer hours.  In 2022, $115,000 in grant funding was awarded to sixteen (16) Downtown Businesses; six (6) build-out awards, five (5) façade, awning, and sign awards, two (2) rental assistance awards and three (3) roof stabilization awards. In 2023 Seymour Main Street will be focused on fulfillment by continuing to evaluate our organization’s efforts to ensure key performance indicators are being met, as well as confirming that our workplans align with our Master Plan and our Target Transformation Strategy.

“We are thrilled for Seymour Main Street to continue to achieve the prestigious designation of an Accredited Main Street America program.  The partnerships with Indiana Main Street and Main Street America have provided access to tools, resources, trainings, and funding to further enhance Seymour Main Street’s revitalization and preservation efforts.” – Executive Director, Bri Roll.

Seymour Main Street Awarded $20,000

April 2023
Author - Zach Spicer
Seymour Tribune

Seymour Main Street is three-for-three in applying for the Taking Care of Main Street grant opportunity offered through the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs.

That office and Indiana Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch recently announced 10 Indiana Main Street organizations will receive $149,520 in funding through the program, which provides organizational support for activities and administrative functions necessary to meet the new accreditation standards for state and nationally accredited Indiana Main Street programs.

The goal of the grant program is to support organizations as they transition to the new accreditation standards implemented by Main Street America. By providing this financial assistance, the organizations will be able to provide direct assistance for growing economic development initiatives in their community, including business retention and recruitment, organizational growth, transformation strategy implementation and more.

Eligible expenses include salaries, administrative or consultant fees, space or equipment rental or staff development and training.

Director Bri RollSeymour Main Street Executive Director Bri Roll said Indiana Main Street has developed strong relationships with all programs in the state to successfully communicate available funding opportunities, including Taking Care of Main Street.

This time around, Seymour Main Street was awarded $20,000.

“Ecstatic,” Roll said of her reaction to the news. “The funding we receive will better position our organization to recruit new business while supporting our existing businesses. It will also position us well as we are moving into a more robust national accreditation process. The standards are shifting, requiring each program to meet six standards within our operations with defined key performance indicators.”

This third round of Taking Care of Main Street funds will help Seymour Main Street improve its lowest performance areas, ensuring national accreditation is retained, Roll said.

“Each round, the TCOM application has evolved,” she said. “This year, there were specific areas the funds could be used for. To qualify, we had to submit work plans, professional service quotes, detailed descriptions of the scope of work, timelines for execution and data supporting proof of a need for the funding.”

In July 2022, Seymour Main Street secured the professional consulting services of The Veridus Group of Indianapolis to assist with the implementation of a downtown streetscape master plan. That project, which incorporates planning documents from multiple organizations into one master vision, began in August and finished in February of this year.

The plan details ways to improve the design and development of the downtown through greenspaces, placemaking, multimodal accommodations, cohesive site furnishings and a gateway to the downtown, Roll said.

In addition to visual enhancements, the plan identifies procedural improvements to address neglected buildings and encourage revitalization efforts in the downtown area.

“The original contract included creating a master document based on community input, existing planning documents, demographic research, creative design suggestions and S.M.A.R.T. goals implementable within the next two to three years,” Roll said. “Moving forward, Seymour Main Street is leveraging the professional experience and expertise of Veridus Group to assist our program with implementing the S.M.A.R.T. goals in the master plan.”

The additional Taking Care of Main Street funding will go toward consulting fees for The Veridus Group to analyze Seymour Main Street’s existing business recruitment and attraction toolkit for inefficiencies and improvements, Roll said.

Read more …

Seymour Main Street Wraps Up One Year, Ready for the Next.

Authored by Lori McDonald / Published January 2023
The Tribune

The board of directors of Seymour Main Street talked about this past year and offered a peek at what's to come this year during the nonprofit organization's annual meeting.

The mission of the organization, incorporated in 1999, is to plan, promote and preserve historic downtown Seymour.

During Thursday's meeting at Seymour City Hall, Executive Director Bri Roll said the primary words were "refresh" and "refocus" in 2022.

"Seymour Main Street had already developed a strong group of volunteers leading efforts to attract local residents and visitors to the downtown area and to support downtown businesses and organizations," she said. "However, those efforts needed to realign with a focused goal to make measurable effective economic transformation happen in downtown Seymour."

The organization successfully contracted with consultants from Viridis Group and Context Design in 2022, Roll said.

"We developed a streetscape master plan, which will guide our organization to take action steps toward implementing a cohesive foundational plan for our downtown," she said. "This plan includes identifying standard amenities so the downtown area will be defined through not only beautiful historic architecture but also synchronized site furnishings, like light posts, benches, trash cans and crosswalks."

She said there was a gain of 12 new businesses downtown in 2022, but unfortunately, three businesses closed and two businesses opted to relocate outside of the district.

Read more …