Thompson Falls joins Main Street Montana program

THOMPSON FALLS – The future for the downtown area of Thompson Falls looks bright following a recent announcement by the Montana Department of Commerce.

The seat of Sanders County was recently accepted into the Montana Main Street Program and will receive assistance in revitalizing and strengthening the town’s historic center.

The state program helps communities across Montana strengthen and preserve their historic downtown commercial districts by focusing on economic development, urban revitalization and historical preservation.

These goals are accomplished through a combination of proactive long-range planning, organization, design and promotion.

“Essentially the first thing we are going to go out after is an overall plan for our downtown area,” Thompson Falls Mayor Carla Parks said.

The mayor said Thompson Falls applied for membership a little over a year ago.

A visit to the town of Shelby in Toole County, a community which has benefitted from the Montana Main Street Program, impressed Parks and inspired her to make an effort to apply to the program.

A key focus of any revitalization effort in Thompson Falls will be to preserve the town’s history.

“We are looking at the historical attributes of our town and are going to make sure they are preserved, while we look into what we can do to foster a healthy business environment,” Parks said.

The town’s efforts to gain membership impressed members of the Department of Commerce.

According to DOC, Thompson Falls is moving forward with a big vision and associated goals demonstrating a broad approach to public facilities, parks, infrastructure and the economic impact of these components within the community.

Tash Wisemiller, the program coordinator of the Montana Main Street Program, stated the program looked forward to working with Thompson Falls.

“They clearly conveyed this was a small town with big ideas,” Wisemiller said.

Wisemiller said the program offers technical assistance and support, including aiding in a town’s efforts to receive competitive grants.

The coordinator noted it is a grass roots efforts where local communities come up with ideas and goals they want to see happen.

“We are really looking to have a community convey its goals,” Wisemiller said.

A collaborative effort between the state’s Community Development Division, the Montana Office of Tourism and the Department of Commerce the Main Street Program was established in 2005.

Along with Thompson Falls the communities of Hamilton and Cut Bank were also accepted into the initiative in early July.

With the new additions, the Main Street Program now serves over 20 communities across the state.

Among other things one of the main goals of the statewide program is to help communities throughout the state build and revitalize successful downtown areas.

Wisemiller stated the program is an ongoing effort and new member communities are added fairly regularly.

“It’s the kind of local effort other communities can pursue,” Wisemiller said.

Over the course of the last fiscal year the Main Street Program awarded slightly over $50,000 in grant funds for projects in several different member communities.

Parks believes the Main Street Program could be a way to attract residents and businesses to Thompson Falls.

“We want to provide a really nice presentation to people coming into town and hopefully help them consider moving themselves or their business here,” Parks said.

The state program works with the National Main Street Center, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, to forward economic development, while recognizing the importance of the culture and history to local communities.

Formed in 1980, the National Trust Main Street Center covers a network of over 2,000 communities, rehabilitating a large number of buildings, and creating over 100,000 new jobs over the years of its existence.

In order to become accepted into the state program applying communities have to lay out specific plans of how they want to pursue proposed ideas of economic development.

DOC indicated Thompson Falls had fulfilled these requirements with the community indicating the need for assistance with the strategy and planning necessary to build and organized approach to achieving its goals.

Their new status as affiliate members marks the completion of months of hard work on the part of Thompson Falls, Hamilton and Cut Bank.