Regular Club Meeting 11/12/19
Attendance : 37 Members Attending out of 89 Total , 41.57%; three guests attended as well including 2 students from Delone Interact
Program : Our Speaker today was Justine Trucksess, Main Street Hanover
The staff of Main Street Hanover currently consists of 1.5. people but MainStreet is primarily led and run by volunteers. 7 Committees are committed to carrying out the 4-point process described below.
Main Street Hanover is associated with National Main Street America and has adopted their 4-Point Approach:
1. Organization. Involves staffing, financing, communication, and coordination of various resources in order to accomplish the goals of revitalizing Hanover
2. Economic Vitalization. Basically attracting new businesses, and vendors, and development and repurposing existing buildings. For example, Justine explained the coordination efforts that went into attracting a developer from Spring Grove to acquire the McAllister Building. It is slated to become 30 high end apts and a class restaurant named McAllisters, associated with Handsome Cab from York. Another example is repurposing the former Montgomery Ward Bldg into apts and a business to be named later on the first floor.
3. Design. Working with local and outside professionals and agencies to come with plans for how the downtown will look and function. Streetscape Plan which involved community input is a good example. Justine showed renderings of what the area might look like.
4. Promotion Getting the word out about changes being made in Hanover to local and regional populations to attract people to visit the area. A good example is launching of Heart of Hanover Trails project to highlight Hanover’s history including the civil war era in new markers and plaques. Justine also shared a number of activities including Bank Alley, Public Art, Mural Program, Facebook, Instagram, and Website presence, and 2nd Saturday events which are all gaining traction and drawing attention to downtown Hanover.