FREDERICKTOWN — The village of Fredericktown has been slowly planning to revitalize the downtown area for quite some time and many residents, council members and committee members met with members of Heritage Ohio on Wednesday to broaden the effort.
Frances Jo Hamilton and Joyce Barrett of Heritage Ohio and Amy Reinhart of the Tiffin-Seneca Economic Partnership all met with Fredericktown residents and business owners on Wednesday morning and then made a presentation that night that proposed potential upgrades and improvements to the downtown area, specifically the collection of businesses in the area between the square and the mill on North Main Street.
The group, which is part of the statewide Revitalize Ohio, has gone to other towns and cities in the state and helped each of them make improvements. They came to Fredericktown for a two-day visit to assist there.
“Our mission is helping people to save the places that matter and build community and live better,” Barrett said. “With all of our programming, we hope to achieve those goals.”
The three women made a slideshow presentation about how they have previously assisted other towns and how they could help in Fredericktown with the “Ohio Main Street Program.”
Hamilton, who is the Director of Revitalization, started and spoke about what Heritage Ohio was and how they helped.
“At Heritage Ohio, we focus in three different areas,” Hamilton said. “Revitalization, which is the Ohio Main Street Program. We also focus on preservation. At the core of who we are, we are historic preservationists. That’s our main goal, is to preserve these historic downtowns so we do things like the Top Opportunities Program, Historic Theaters Initiative, our Preservation Easement Program and we also do one-on-one advice and consultation for building owners. We also focus a lot on advocacy.”
Hamilton explained how the nationwide system has worked in the past for other communities.
“The Main Street approach is an integrated approach that focuses in design, organization, promotion and economic vitality. All of those points are working toward the same goal,” she said.
She then talked about how to mobilize a community and about her experiences in other places. Hamilton talked at length about the need for an energetic and enthusiastic volunteers and about the comprehensive approach of the potential project, which includes relying on quality, meaningful partnerships, changing attitudes, focusing on existing assets and moving in small increments, among other things.
Barrett and Reinhart then spoke and broke down the design, organization, promotion and economic vitality points more thoroughly, which including the creation of specific committees, the use of marketing and social media and how businesses could help themselves during the revitalization process.
The group will be visiting with residents again today before collecting data and returning for another group meeting in 45 days.
