Boonville Now receives Aspiring Indiana Accredited Main Street designation
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As Boonville Now prepares for its first 2024 Concert in the Park on June 15, the organization is celebrating an accomplishment. The not-for-profit was one of 14 organizations to receive a new Indiana Main Street designation in March.
Boonville Now achieved Aspiring Indiana Accredited Main Street status from Indiana Main Street based on standards established by Main Street America.
“It shows that you’re working to maintain your downtown and promote your downtown area and historic district,” said Jim Miller, executive director of Boonville Now. “I almost had tears in my eyes because it was a lot of work. Not just me, our board and putting together the paperwork and the financials and everything that we needed to do to show know what we were doing and how well we had progressed from the year before.”
The new distinction moves Boonville Now one step closer to reaching the next level—Indiana Accredited Main Street—and getting access to downtown revitalization grants.
“When they hired me as executive director [in 2023], that was my number one goal, was to get the Indiana Main Street designation back so that we could be eligible for those grants,” Miller said.
About Indiana Main Street
The Indiana Main Street program fosters community-driven revitalization in downtown areas across the state.
“Indiana Main Street is an organization that promotes small towns, downtown squares, the more traditional type of shopping, historic preservation and all kinds of events that make things feel a little more local,” said Miller. “They have a whole toolbox full of things you can use to help promote your events, garner volunteers and come up with all kinds of other activities.”
The program has three levels: Office of Community and Rural Affairs’ Downtown Affiliate Network, Aspiring Indiana Accredited Main Street and Indiana Accredited Main Street. Miller said the A-IAMS level is similar to a probationary period.
“[Community liaisons] come in and meet with you. They make sure that you’re still progressing the right way, getting your volunteers, doing your activities correctly and doing your reporting. And then at the end of that year, if everything goes well, you’re elevated to full Indiana Main Street status,” Miller said.
Boonville Now—created in 2011 to eliminate blight—focuses on supporting the historic downtown area.
“We’ve really accomplished a lot over the years to be no bigger than we are,” said Bill Tanner, former Boonville Now board president.
Member Sherrie Sievers said the group achieved IAMS status but lost the designation a few years ago because there wasn’t enough participation.
“It’s like anything else with volunteers. After a while, you get tired, and then you have the same people stepping up to the plate, and it’s hard. Everybody wants to see things done, and everybody wants to help until it becomes time to help. Then everybody’s got plans,” she said.
The reapplication process
Boonville Now applied for A-IAMS in 2022 hoping to receive the designation for 2023, but the organization’s submission was denied.
“They sent us a score sheet. This is where your application was good. This is where it was bad. And so then we went through and we made all the corrections. We had to have a bigger board. We had to have more detailed minutes,” said Miller.
After making adjustments and applying again in 2023, Miller received an email asking about his availability for a call.
“A couple of people told me, ‘If you’re getting a call and not a letter, then that’s a good sign.’ And that’s when they told us that we had bumped up to Aspiring Indiana Main Street, and our application this year was really good,” he said.
Sievers said hiring Miller as Boonville Now’s executive director was one of the keys to achieving A-IAMS status. The city and county used American Rescue Plan Act funds to finance the two-year position.
“It’s very hard to get that designation unless you have a paid director. We were able because the commissioners saw what Boonville Now could do by having that designation. It helps two entities: city hall and the Warrick County commissioners. It opens them up to huge grants that they otherwise wouldn’t be privy to,” said Sievers.
Indiana Main Street communities can apply for some exclusive grant programming through OCRA. For example, PreservINg Main Street is a program that uses an innovative funding mechanism to preserve downtown historic buildings.
“They come out all the time with grants and things like that. So if you’re an Indiana Main Street, then you’re eligible for those grants that can also help your community. And I’m talking in terms of millions of dollars,” Miller said.
Working toward full accreditation
Miller said IAMS representatives came to Boonville in May to discuss the next steps for the organization’s A-IAMS designation.
“We have to continue to grow our board. Our board currently consists of five people, and they would like to see it at around seven to nine people. Make sure that the board is diverse, that it mimics the demographics of our community,” he said.
The new A-IAMS status is already opening doors for other partnerships.
“[The city administration] approved $100,000 worth of economic development money that Boonville Now can use to give out facade grants to help the downtown merchants spruce up the outsides of their building to make them look nicer,” said Miller.
Sievers said the community is also going to pursue funding from the Stellar Pathways Program.
“Because we were awarded the [A-IAMS designation], we’re going to go for the Stellar grant this year. Had we not been awarded the Indiana Main Street, we wouldn’t have been eligible. So what that means to our community is $7 million for various projects, which is huge,” she said.
As Boonville Now works toward full IAMS status and maintaining that designation, Miller credits the county, the city administration and the Boonville Merchants Association for their support.
“It’s not just [Boonville Now]. It’s the partnerships and things like that that the state saw and how we’d improved that in the past year. And it helped our application process,” he said.
“We’ve got a lot of horsepower. I always say to be successful, you’ve got to be fueled, and you’ve got to be fueled by teamwork. And it takes a village to make something like this work,” added Sievers.