8/4/2008 6:00:00 AM
A Day in the Life of...a Main Street program manager
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| Jane Jones has been the Program Manger for Main Street Van Wert since 2005 and was named the Ohio Manager of the Year in 2007. Her duties include a variety of responsibilities but they all revolve around downtown Van Wert. Here is her typical day.
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BY AARON GILLESPIE
Times Bulletin Staff
Jane Jones has been involved with Main Street Van Wert since 2004, and became the Program Manager in 2005. Since then, a lot has been changed and improved under her leadership which netted her the title of 2007 Main Street Manager of the year for the state of Ohio. Her daily routine and responsibilities are wide-ranging, but her goal is simple - to do anything she can to improve the community and downtown Van Wert.
Jones' day begins with her alarm clock going off at 6:30 a.m. but according to someone close to her, that might not mean much.
"My husband will tell you that my alarm goes off at 6:30, but it 'doesn't mean you're getting out of bed when it goes off'," said Jones with a laugh.
Despite the alarm clock discrepancies, Jones normally gets into the office around 8:30 each morning and she works until roughly 4, depending on what type of work needs done on a particular day. There are some occasions where her work can be completed from her home computer in the afternoons and into the evenings, which often makes the job more of a 60-hour per week endeavor as opposed to 40. But Jones noted that is "just like any job."
In general, the Main Street manager for Van Wert takes care of the Main Street Program which is part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the group that started the program in Washington D.C. Their belief is that a community who focuses on a pre-determined four point approach, either as an organization or a committee, can make the program work. However, if the community population is larger than 5,000 residents, there needs to be a full-time person in charge. That person since 2005 has been Jane Jones.
The first area of the four point approach is design. Jones noted that this involves the look of downtown and how the buildings are re-done. "We want the buildings to bring back the integrity of what they were," mentioned Jones. She cited buildings such as Peking, the Van Wert County Foundation and Butlers Bakery as perfect examples of how this approach has been put into place.
The second area is promotion of the downtown community. The goal of this initiative is to bring people downtown.
"(We want people to) know it's here, it's the center, it's the heart of the community. It's the county seat and should be the heart of the county, but it's here and open to them. It's theirs," said Jones.
Also a part of the four point plan is economic restructuring which involves having things in the downtown area that make you want to go there. According to Jones these are things like the coffee shop (Perks), the bakery (Butler's), Francis Furniture and Everyday Travel.
"Those are the kinds of businesses that make a downtown flourish. They're not going to be JCPenny's but they are the things you go for, the niche, they specialty shops and you mix them in with a good level of business offices," she said.
The fourth point of that plan is where Jones comes into play - organization. This is the group of people that oversee the fund-raising and the plan of the entire organization. The organization is what goes out and does the selling of the program and the work. The job of Jones is to be the person that coordinates all of that and makes it all happen. She is charge of working with the different committees and helping them while making sure the work gets completed.
The success of the program has been evident, both in easily notable areas as well as some behind the scenes work. Since the program's inception the vacancy rate downtown has dropped from 22 percent down to 11 percent. There have also been a number of restoration projects that have ranked high on the list of best achievements for Jones.
"Restoration to me is probably the number one thing because it's something you can see. We can all sit here and do work and do stuff behind the scenes but it's what you can literally see that stands out," she said.
In order to make this program so successful and to see such drastic improvement there is an obvious need for money. Much of the funding for the Main Street program comes from grants, an area Jones has made a very large part of her job. As a matter of fact, it has become an area of her job that she actually enjoys.
"That's the sign of a sick mind, when you like to write grants," said Jones with a laugh.
Currently Main Street Van Wert is on their second tier two grant for another $400,000. According to Jones, the first $320,000 that was brought in leveraged $1.3 million investment in the downtown area.
"That $1.3 million was a big success story so when we did our second, it enabled us to receive another 400,000 and once we received that we also receive another $600,000 to do the street scape in downtown Van Wert," explained Jones.
The street scape projects includes fixing brick pavers, adding historic lighting, new banners, new benches as well as trash receptacles. This is all done to give the Main Street a more "historic" look.
The last tier two grant was written to represent and pay for the 20 percent of the Main Street funding of the street scape project and for the engineering costs. Jones noted that there is $196,000 that is sat aside to pay for the engineering piece and to pay for the cities 20 percent, noting that no money is coming out of the cities general fund or from tax dollars to pay for the project.
"The funding is an issue and always will be but we're having fun doing it," she said.
While writing grants and appropriating funds takes up a lot of time in the daily routine of Jones, she also has been an integral part in growing the "One Wonderful Weekend" experience. She noted that helping this program to evolve has been one of her favorite contributions made the the community.
"Helping combine the Peony Festival and Artrageous and the activities that go on during that weekend to make it One Wonderful Experience, we've heard such wonderful comments and it's just been phenomenal," said Jones.
Jones also noted that Van Wert is actually very well known among other Main Street programs throughout the country. The things done at the program, and the type of people that work in the County are known by many. The character of the community members found special mention.
"When you go out and leave our little Van Wert and you see what they know about us. They know our strengths, they know if we say we are going to do something, we are going to follow through," said Jones. "I think we have a lot to be proud of and a lot going for us."
This has also led to Van Wert playing host to Heritage Ohio, a group that oversees the state Main Street programs. Roughly 150 to 200 people will be making a visit to Van Wert on August 26 and 27 for meetings and a visit to some historic Van Wert sites. They will be holding meetings at the YWCA and will also be having dinner at the Hotel Marsh.
"We're going to focus on economic development and board development. People will be coming from the state and a gentleman coming from Washington D.C. to be a guest speaker," added Jones.
With a full slate of grant writing, managing, and handling all other duties related to her job, a move can also be added to her current daily routine.
Due to some downtown expansion, the Chamber of Commerce, Convention & Visitors Bureau (CVB) and Main Street Van Wert offices will be moving. The CVB and Main Street Van Wert offices will be moving just west of the Van Wert County Foundation Building, while the Chamber of Commerce is moving away from Main Street for the time being.
"Things are falling into place nicely and I think we're going to have a nice new home. We're excited about being in the center of downtown and staying downtown," said Jones.
After leaving her job in banking of 33 years to take over the Main Street Van Wert program, Jones has constantly managed and improved everything to the best of her ability.
"I believe in community and anything I can do to improve it before i leave this world, I would like to do," proclaimed Jones.
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