Maysville was given two honors this week at the annual Kentucky Main Street Awards ceremony.
It was a special celebration at My Old Kentucky Home State Park in Bardstown for 45th Anniversary of Kentucky Main Street.
City Manager Matt Wallingford was named the Spirit of Main Street’s Local Leader of the Year. Wallingford was Main Street Director for three years before becoming city manager. He did that job along with acting as planning and zoning administrator for the city.
That experience made him realize the many tasks Main Street directors are charged with and gave him a unique understanding of how important the historic downtown is to the overall prosperity of the city.
“For a Main Street program to maintain any sort of success, there must be strong partnerships throughout the community,” said current Main Street Director, Caroline Reece, “It is even more helpful when those partners are there, strong and steady, for a number of years.
It becomes invaluable when the partner is a local leader who carries the weight necessary to get things done. Maysville Main Street has that privilege in spades when it comes to our partner, supporter, and champion, City Manager Matt Wallingford.”
State Main Street Coordinator, Kitty Dougoud, echoed those same sentiments saying, “Every community would benefit from having a leader like Matt Wallingford. He truly understands the importance of a vibrant downtown.
With his extensive experience in planning and zoning, as well as his tenure as a former Main Street director, Matt has firsthand knowledge of what it takes to make a city great. His unwavering support of Maysville Main Street and the broader community is just one reason Maysville is “the center of the universe.”
Reece went on to say, “From the first day on the job, Matt has been in my corner. We have worked together on scores of improvement projects from adding murals and a downtown farmer’s market to changing parking patterns, our inclusion on the B-Line, Small Business Relief Loans during Covid, and help with various grants.
His support and knowledge of our Area Development District was vital in initiating the Maysville Main Street Historic Building Improvement Grant. And it’s those two terms – support and knowledge – that make Matt just a great leader and partner.”
Mayor Debra Cotterill added her congratulations.
She said, “Maysville is truly fortunate to have leadership with the experience and passion that Matt possesses. He understands the importance of downtown vitality to our economy and quality of the life for our citizens.”
Wallingford downplayed any personal praise, instead giving credit to his co-workers saying, “In my 24 years with the City of Maysville, I have been so fortunate to work with two great Main Street Directors: Duff Giffen and Caroline Reece. When I took over as City Manager in 2016, I had only one candidate in mind to be our city’s MS Director, Caroline. She is one of many great staff members I get to work with day in and day out, who make my job so much simpler because they are all so good at what they do. With the support of our City Commission, and other City departments, Main Street has been able to flourish as the catalyst for economic development in Maysville.”
Maysville also won the Economic Vitality award for producing its annual report on a coaster. Dougoud explained, “One of the requirements for being a Nationally Accredited Kentucky Main Street program is the collection of reinvestment statistics.
Although this may not be the most exciting part of our program, it is one of the most important, as it shows the return on investment in the downtown area. When it comes to creativity and finding new ways to engage and provide information to a community, it would be hard to beat Maysville.” Mayor Cotterill agreed saying, “We are extremely proud of Caroline for her clever idea of putting reinvestment coasters and sharing them with local businesses. That was truly creative marketing and a great avenue for sharing the public and private efforts in our downtown.”
Reece added, “Those reports are bright and shiny for a minute and then end up in various offices along with ones from every other community organization. We wanted ours to be more visible and literally hands-on, and this seemed like a unique way to do it. Granted, that is a limited amount of space, but we focused on the highlights people sitting and waiting for a drink or dinner might notice and talk about.”
In this important, anniversary year it is exciting to note that Kentucky was one of a few states that first participated in the national Main Street America program.
And around Kentucky, Maysville, along with Winchester and Georgetown were the first cities asked to join. Maysville is the only original town still part of the program and has been accredited for 45 years.
