Community Meeting Focuses on Downtown Revitalization
A community meeting set for 6-8 p.m. November 18 at the New Life Center, 219 W. Church St. will introduce the Barnesville Community to the Main Street Program coordinated in Ohio by the statewide group, Heritage Ohio.
At the pubic meeting, members of a Downtown Assessment Resource Team (D.A.R.T) will share information on the program as well as their observations from a guided downtown tour that will take place earlier in the day. The tour allows the D.A.R.T. team “gain insights from local perspectives”. The program will also present information on the benefits of downtown revitalization.
The National Main Street Program, led by Main Street America, is a preservation-based economic development movement focused on revitalizing historic downtowns and commercial districts. It works through a network of local, state, and regional programs that use the “Main Street Approach” to improve economic vitality, design, organization, and promotion. Since 1980, the program has helped generate over $115 billion in local reinvestment, rehab hundreds of thousands of buildings, and create hundreds of thousands of jobs and new businesses across the United States.
Nationally, there are over 1,200 Main Street communities. In Ohio there are over 50 towns practicing the Main Street approach to economic development including programs in Cambridge, Marietta, Wooster, Coshocton and Millersburg. Two other communities that received Ohio Appalachian grant funding for downtown redevelopment – McConnellsville and Newcomerstown – are “aspiring communities” new to the program. In 2026, Barnesville will be in this later category.
Over the past year, local organizers, Coty Marcum Welch and Bruce Yarnall, have secured funds from the Belmont County Tourism Council, Barnesville Chamber of Commerce and the Village of Barnesville to stage the two-day workshop and D.A.R.T visit. They’ve also pulled together a committee of “stakeholders” made up of building and business owners, officials, organizations and others who have a vested interest in downtown Barnesville. These “stakeholders” have agreed to serve on the Main Street Board for the initial year.
For more information on the program contact Yarnall by email at bruce.yarnall@outlook.com or call 202-236-5633.
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