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2005-11-30
 lakes
area news |
Local Main
Street committees may grow in
members
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| Josh
Jackett |
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November
30, 2005 - According to
Highland Downtown Development Authority (DDA)
Chairman Keith Rhodes, the 26 total initial
members of the four required and
newly-established committees for Highland
Township's participation in the Main Street
Oakland County program could grow to over
52.
"We have a lot of people in the
community and the surrounding areas interested
in what we're doing, so we think we're going to
be expanding the population on each of those
committees," Rhodes said. "Probably a year from
now we hope to have 10 to 15 in each of the
committees."
Main Street is a historic
preservation-based economic development program
that provides design and redevelopment
assistance to participating
communities.
Highland was selected as one
of two new Main Street communities in September,
which will result in a three-year commitment
from the Main Street Oakland County program to
help develop a comprehensive downtown centered
around the Highland Station area, located at
Milford and Livingston roads.
"We're very
excited about additional support we're getting
from local government beyond Highland Township,
and we're real excited about what this means for
our future," Rhodes said. "We think it's going
to really help drive this vision forward in an
accelerated timeframe."
Each of the local
committees are based on four points of the Main
Street program: organization, though a DDA
structure; economic restructuring, through
working existing businesses and recruiting new
ones; design, through maintaining an urban,
historical, or environmental style; and
promotion, which includes creating new special
developments.
According to an initial
committee member list provided by Highland
Township Supervisor Triscia Pilchowski — which
according to Pilchowski and Rhodes is likely to
have expanded since the initial committee member
selections were made during the DDA's meeting
earlier this month — the Organization Committee
consists of chairman Scott Oppmann, Carol
Borich, Joe Salvia, and Rhodes.
Jim
Gorman was selected chairman of the Economic
Restructuring Committee, which also includes Ros
Smith and Dave Blossey.
Susan Happel
heads up the Promotions Committee, which also
consists of Pilchowski, Michael Hickox, and
Sharon Greene.
The Design Committee
consists of Greene, Salvia, Paul, David, Heather
and Keith Mecklenborg, Jim Allie, Sue Grissim,
Gail Perrin, Nan and Jim Blake, Paul Young,
Kristen Cota, Colleen Emerick, and Cassandra
Balok.
While Rhodes said Main Street
participants were able to choose which committee
they wanted to serve on, with most opting for
the Design Committee, he expects the membership
to even out.
"From what I understand,
talking to the people from the Main Street
program, our committee groups are a very solid
number for just starting, and over the course of
the next year or two those numbers should
balance out," he said. "(The committees) will
all probably be somewhere in the 20 to 30
(member) range. That's what we're hoping
for."
Josh Jackett is a staff writer
for the Spinal Column
Newsweekly |
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