Chardon Tomorrow, a not-for-profit civic and economic development organization, is thrilled to announce that the organization has been invited to join the Ohio Heritage Ohio Main Street Program. The Main Street invitation follows a 5-year planning process that involved community leaders, business representatives, government officials, and residents.
Chardon Tomorrow has been operating as an affiliate program since 2011. During the four years since joining, Chardon Tomorrow has retained an Executive Director and implemented numerous high-impact programs (ex. developing historic design guidelines in concert with the city; bringing high capacity fiber optic broadband to Chardon; working with partners to develop and launch a “Buy Local” campaign; and developing new events to benefit local business and residents, including WinterFest and BrewFest).
Chardon Tomorrow’s mission is to preserve and enhance the character of Chardon by encouraging investment, fostering a sense of community, and developing partnerships with community stakeholders to create a more vibrant and sustainable quality of life. Board Chair Ted Theofrastous states, “Residents and visitors alike will benefit from the connections made via the Ohio Main Street program. Heritage Ohio is a great partner and full admission into the program both validates the great things going on in Chardon and allows us to draw from best practices developed in other Main Street communities across the state.”
The Ohio Main Street Program, administered by Heritage Ohio, works with communities across the state to revitalize their historic or traditional commercial areas. The Main Street approach was developed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation to save historic commercial architecture, but has become a powerful economic development tool as well. The Main Street program is designed to improve all aspects of the downtown or central business district, producing both tangible and intangible benefits.
For four years now, Chardon Tomorrow has already been drawing from this knowledge base in its efforts to improve economic development, strengthen public participation, and make Chardon a fun place to live, work and visit. Across its dozens of communities, Ohio Main Street program has already demonstrated these focal points as critical to Main Street’s future as recruiting new businesses, rehabilitating buildings, and generally improving local quality of life, generating a nearly 27:1 average return on investment for those communities.
Current Ohio Main Street Programs include: Cambridge, Defiance, Delaware, Greenville, Warehouse District (Cleveland), Gateway Neighborhood (Cleveland), Kent, Lakewood, Lebanon, Marietta, Medina, Millersburg, Mt. Vernon, Norwalk, Painesville, Piqua, Portsmouth, Sandusky, Troy, Van Wert, Vermillion, Wooster.
Chardon City Manager Randy Sharpe, who was an early sponsor and team member Chardon’s Main Street efforts, added, “Congratulations to Chardon Tomorrow on becoming a Main Street program. It is well deserved and the result of much hard work and dedication to the community. The City looks forward to our continued partnership with Chardon Tomorrow as a Main Street program working together with the business community, supporting the Uptown Chardon area, and promoting economic development.”
For more information about Chardon Tomorrow, visit their website or call 440-273-3077.
