Several members of the Main Street Alabama Resource Team spent last week in Russellville meeting with local officials, business owners and citizens to determine recommendations for the Main Street Downtown Russellville Collective moving forward.
Last Tuesday, a community input session was held at the A.W. Todd Centre. Participants were asked what they believe downtown Russellville strengths and weaknesses are, as well as what they believe downtown Russellville is best known for.
The Main Street Alabama Team compiled 435 responses into a preliminary report that the team revealed at a Thursday evening meeting.
The Downtown Russellville Collective received Main Street Alabama designation earlier this year after the city served as a pilot for MSA's 'Aspiring' program last year.
Main Street uses a four point approach that includes organization, design, promotion and economic vitality to help restore downtowns of communities across the United States.
The objective is to recommend a course of action for the Russellville Main Street group to move forward. Thursday's meeting was a preliminary report and a final report will be delivered to the Downtown Russellville Collective within six weeks.
The most frequent strengths of downtown Russellville identified by respondents included growth opportunities, the fact that downtown has many local businesses owned by local residents and the Roxy Theatre was named as a consistent strength.
On the flip side, the most common weaknesses of downtown Russellville include not much community involvement or support, vacant properties and storefronts and a lack of foot traffic.
A tentative five-year goal for downtown would include the Roxy Theatre showing first-run movies, restaurants with outdoor dining and boutiques. Possible attractions and activities that would enhance downtown include monthly events (like a Third Thursday or First Friday), live music at restaurants and murals in downtown.
Preliminary recommendations by Main Street Alabama for Russellville include improvements to alleyways, the addition of green spaces downtown, and converting abandoned buildings to community spaces. The team credited the city's efforts in making streetscape improvements already to downtown, but said that could be enhanced with, for example, matching benches.
From a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 the strongest agreement, respondents gave downtown Russellville's 'sense of community' a 2.9
Asked what downtown Russellville was known for, answers ranged from the 'Roxy' to the 'Watermelon Festival' to 'Mexicans' and 'nothing.'
38% of respondents believe downtown Russellville is improving/making progress. 34% said it's steady or holding on and 28% believe it's declining or losing ground.
The MSA Resource Team reported that total retail, food and drink sales in Russellville last year was $171,736,145, and $56,545,657 of that total came from downtown Russellville retail sales, food and drink sales, representing 33% of the total amount.
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