Notice Something a Little Different??

About a year ago the owner of the building located at 117 N Gordy approached El Dorado Main Street with a plan to paint his building.  This would be a great improvement to the already painted (but bright white) facade that already existed.  The El Dorado Main Street Design Committee has a facade grant program where building owners/business owners are able to receive grants for improvements to their properties.  The Committee decided that this would be a great project to help fund.  Much work went into the project and due to some weather issues, it took a little longer than expected.  Last week I received a call that it was completed.  We are very appreciative for the work and expense that went into this improvement to the building and to the downtown district.

Whew! A good evaluation from Kansas Main Street!

Yesterday, Jeanne Stinson, the State Director for

Kansas Main Street

was in El Dorado for our annual evaluation.  By receiving reports from committees, surveys from business owners, and taking a good look at our work-plans and budget; she praises the organization on accomplishments and also guides us to correct other aspects of the duties.  This is always an evaluation that we anticipate and look forward to receiving guidance from our State Director.  2010 was a year that she saw many good things happening and then she also had some suggestions as to improving others.

              She started by revealing some of the survey responses that she had received from local businesses.  These surveys had 5 questions/statements to “agree, needs improvement, or disagree” with.  The area that we are most proud of is the last statement “

Main Street

had a direct impact on the physical appearance of the downtown district”.  This question was unanimously answered that they agree with this statement.  Our Design Committee is one of the organization’s hardest working committees.  With this response on the survey, they should be very proud.  This also shows that the businesses and the community are seeing our efforts to improve the visual aspects of the downtown.  The questions that were not as favorable were those that could be improved with better communication to the community and downtown businesses.  These surveys are great tools for the organization to see where we stand within the community.

            Jeanne asked us to look more externally for setting our goals.  She thought that we were very focused internally and now needed to set goals that would be considered outside of the organization.  She instructed the committees to be more specific with our objectives instead of creating very broad work-plans and commitments.  She praised us on our accomplishments such as current code enforcement changes which was because of relationships with the City and also on the growing number of volunteers that we have for our committees. 

            Jeanne gave us great ideas and encouraged a board retreat in the near future to make more specific objectives and to do additional training of board members. 

El Dorado Main Street

is a part of

Kansas Main Street

which is through the Kansas Department of Commerce.  Because of this, we have great guidelines to work by and leadership resources that are not available to most organizations.  If you have more questions or would like to see a copy of the entire State Evaluation, please call me at 321-3088.

We learned to knit in Downtown El Dorado!!

Okay so I have to admit, when Laura Spradlin owner of Sugar Bunny Blvd, came to me last year and said "I want to open a knitting store in Downtown El Dorado" I was not excited.  Like many people, I think of knitting as a craft that my great-grandma would have done.  It was not until after talking to her and hearing about the knitting ministry she had started in El Dorado and the social aspect to knitting; then I began to think about this project differently.  I learned that the art of knitting was gaining popularity again and it is considered a very social activity.  This has been a long year of planning for Laura, but she has finally has succeeded in opening a knitting shop in Downtown El Dorado.  As we spent many hours working together, I promised her that I would be in her first beginner's knitting class. 

Last month, as I joined the full class of beginner knitters, I began to get nervous about this commitment.  To my horror, I found out that 2 of the 6 women did know how to knit and that this was going to be a refresher course.  I have since decided that they broke the rules.  Beginner knitting classes cannot accept non-beginners!  To ease my anxiety, I sat next to two women who looked as clueless as I did.  As Laura described what the first steps were and I looked around the room and saw that everyone except me understood this, I was trying to figure out how to escape.  The other "beginners" quickly picked up the skills and before I knew it, their dish rags were taking shape.  My sticks (which I found out are called knitting needles) had about 6 loops on them and it looked more like a messy knot than a stitch. 

Luckily, the over-achievers left when the class was over and I was able to take advantage of some one-on-one training.  Laura was so patient and truly a great teacher.  I completed my first dish rag, which my son says looks like the Chief's arrowhead logo instead of a square, but it is now framed and hanging on my wall.  I have since completed another dish rag (that actually is a square) and am now working on my first scarf.  I am already making plans to take the next class which is called "Pearling".  Laura advised me yesterday to take a little more time practicing before I jump to the next step.  I think this is her nice way of stalling a challenged student who could win the title of most difficult student! 

Be sure and stop by Sugar Bunny Blvd and sign up for Laura's classes.  She truly is a great teacher and this is a fun new skill to learn.

Well, we thought that was a good idea...

Currently, the Organization Committee is planning the Annual Banquet.  Last month as we were brainstorming ideas, a couple of us decided that instead of having invitations printed, we could MAKE them.  Keep in mind, we usually send out abou 300 invites.  As I offered up my Cricut Cutting Machine, we thought this was a great idea...
After purchasing different colored card stock, adhesives, and all of the other necessary materials; we still thought that this was a great idea...
Day one:  Deanna (Committee Chairman) and I excitedly got started.  Deanna understands my need for anything that is mailed out, to look good.  After a childhood of tri-folding, mailing, labeling, and creating mailings at my mother's standards; this is now my requirement as well.  Deanna and I put in a good three hours and then decided that was a great way to start off this project.  We thought that this was a great idea...

Day Two:  My eight year old son spent a couple hours with me in the Main Street office and began pasting pieces of the invitations together.  He quickly decided that he would not be back to my office until after this project was complete.

Day Three:  Invitation Making "Party"....well that is what we called it anyways.  Several more volunteers showed up on their lunch breaks to help us finish more invites. 

Day Four:  By this time, Deanna and I have spent about 8 hours creating these lovely invites.  We decided we needed new blood in the office helping us out.  My lovely sister spent her day off spending a couple hours in th Main Street office. 

Day Five:  Deanna and I are now tired of looking at card stock, adhesives, and that silly Cricut Cutting Machine.  We spent a final 4 hours making these dang invites....I am not quite sure this was a great idea!

The point of this story is that if you are one of the recipients of these, please do not discard it.  Respect the number of tedious hours that we spent on these because we thought this was going to be a good idea!

10 bread sacks = admission to the movies??!?

Well, Friday is here and I have decided that I am not a very good blogger.  While I have had much to write about, time is a problem.  On Tuesday I spoke to the class of 1945.  They meet monthly and had asked me to tell them about El Dorado Main Steet.  Not knowing what to expect from this group, I brought a wide variety of topics, pictures, and materials for this presentation.  After all was said and done, I probably gained more from them than they did from me.  I brought some pictures of what downtown El Dorado looked like in 1945.  That brought back so many memories from them and the proceeded to tell me stories about many of the buildings.  They told me that on Sundays if you brought 10 bread sacks to the theatre downtown, you were given free admission.  Because of this, they would always go and collect bread sacks from all of their neighbors every week so that that they could attend the show.  One of the men told me about the gypsies and that they would come into town and beg for food.  He said that one year, they were sneaky and had robbed his mother while she was getting food for them.  The very next year the same gypsies came back and asked for food.  He said while laughing, "that year she made them stand on the porch".  It dawned on me that even though they robbed her a year earlier, she still fed them when they came back through town.  When I looked at him baffeled at this, he said "well of course she fed them again." 
Ahhh the good ol' days!

A new spin on a downtown tour

Wine and coffee at Scooters

Last Thursday, a group of about 25 women were in town for a conference.  The group leader had approached me a few months back and had asked for ideas on how to entertain them the first evening of the conference.  She explained that they often eat dinner together and she wanted these women to get a feel for our great downtown. 

After thinking about it for a bit, I told her about an idea I have seen in other communities.  Downtowns will hold progressive dinners through the businesses of the downtown.  This ensures that the participants visit the businesses while also being fed.  We quickly got to work on this idea and it turned out great.  Eight downtown businesses participated in the evening and the women were able to see all areas of the downtown as well. 

A roast and veggies at Satchel Creek Steaks

This event was not intended to "ring the registers" throughout the evening, but to gain exposure for what our downtown offers and hopefully to bring them back to shop and dine.  The very next day, several of those businesses involved in the dinner reported that many of the women came back into their stores after the conference concluded and made purchases.  What a fun way to bring people into the local businesses!

Bear with me as I enter the blogging world...

The volunteers and myself at El Dorado Main Street have continued to look for new ways to communicate with the community, I have been told by several people to start a blog.  With the blog, we would be able to communicate with more information than what facebook allows but maybe not as formal as the weekly business column that I write.  This could be a fun new way to show what El Dorado Main Street is doing in the community on a more regular basis.  If you have any suggestions for this new endeavor, please let me know.  I am also looking for a catchy new "blog name"...  I am not the most creative when it comes to words, so I struggled to title it.  Give me your ideas!!