© Copyright Town of Coatesville, Indiana. All rights reserved.
Facebook
You Tube
Contact Webmaster
C O A T E S V I L L E
Questions about Coatesville:
Contact Town Hall at 4994 Milton Street
Coatesville, IN 46121 765-386-7205
A n I n d i a n a M a i n S t r e e t C o m m u n i t y
Coatesville Downtown Revitalization Semi Annual Update
NOVEMBER 21ST, 2018 UPDATE
This is the Coatesville Downtown Revitalization’s (CDR) semi-annual update email to the town. Sorry that we are a little late, its been a busy year so far. A lot of good things are happening, but as with anything, there are a few bumps in the road which I’ll cover too. I’ll try to keep this one shorter than the past updates.
We’ve had great successes in 2018. The CDR brings many events and contests to the community throughout the year. We also have fundraising events which are always a big hit. We held the Spaghetti Dinner in April which did well and has considerable room for more growth. Our annual Coatesville car show held every July has become famous around the state of Indiana. In fact, it’s become one of the most anticipated shows in the state and we now pre-sell approx. 50% of the show in advance of the event date. This year we had to move the show to our rain date a week later and we still set records. We had 169 cars registered and raised close to $10,000 this year after expenses. The car show did so well that we were able to hit a CDR goal set over a year ago with I will cover in a moment.
Being a Main Street community, Coatesville is at a disadvantage compared to similar communities. In small towns like ours, the main highway flows through the center of town and is called Main Street within the town limits. For Coatesville, State Highway 75 is our highway and does not flow through the center of town, so we need a way to bring people into the downtown Main Street area. This is where the goal we set last year comes into play. The CDR has purchased a large full color doubled sided digital monitor with animation capabilities and we have donated the monitors to the town. The best way to describe it is that the monitors are similar to what Danville High School installed on US-36.
We are working closely with the town and engineers on securing a location and doing the necessary work to obtain the permits. It will be installed somewhere within town limits along State Highway 75 near Hadley. Having these monitors in place will provide us the ability to advertise events taking place in town plus it is another tool the local businesses can use (free of charge) to advertise their business. This will be a great asset in helping the local economy and hopefully help us to bring new business to the area. For established businesses, this type of sign should help increase their business revenue by as little as 15% to as much as 50% or more. I welcome the business to take advantage of this new tool once we have it operational and know the programming.
Another activity you will be hearing about is the Coatesville Historic Society. This is being established to help preserve Coatesville’s history, either through material items, photos, or stories. This will be a separate entity from the CDR but will work in conjunction with the CDR and the Town as well as residents. More to come in the very new future and we will look for your help. Watch for the Coatesville Historic Society Facebook Page.
As you can see, good things are happening. There will be an adjustment period as we get everything in motion and get things in place. As we move into 2019, we will be evaluating what events to take forward and what events will be discontinued due to low participation or lack of interest. We try different things each year, some activities take, and some don’t.
Now I’m moving on to what I referred to as the bumps in the road. Bumps may not be the right term, so we will say over-extended. We have a very solid core group within the CDR that helps put on all the activities, events, fundraising, contests, etc. that you see throughout the year. We have others that may participate in one or two events a year and nothing else which we also appreciate. The problem lies within the core group that works to bring you things year-round. I must applaud all involved because most everyone in the core group are active and present for each event throughout the year. However, this leads to burnout and people start to lose their passion and motivation. This is where we need the communities help.
As you imagine, 6-8 people alone can’t continuously sustain the speed they have been working at. We know there are a lot of people out there that would like to be active within their community and we would like to urge you to get involved in the CDR and help make a difference in the community. If we can double or triple our core group, this will help immensely. We are not talking about the CDR being a lot of work, it’s not, but we do special things and the more people we have will help level the volunteer base and reduce the burden on the current group. Plus, you may have ideas for activities or events within the community and the CDR is the path that can make that happen.
I hope you consider getting involved after reading this message. We have great things planned and you can get engaged and say you were a part of it. For example, the biggest changes are yet to come. Within the last year, you may have been visited by one of our volunteers conducting an income survey to help secure a grant to update the sewer plant and lift stations. As part of those randomly selected to participate, we received the grant with an extra $150,000 because of the income surveys. This is starting to get underway and will open the path for our next big adventure as the town looks to secure the next grant.
The next large grant will be the one where we replace drainage under Main Street in downtown and is the one we’ve been waiting for. This will take a couple of years to go through the grant process and develop but will be here before too long. This will change the look of the downtown business district with new street, sidewalks, lights, etc. I urge you to come to one of our meetings and see what we are all about. If you think its for you, join us and get engaged in the community. The current Board terms expire at the end of December 2020. At that time we will need fresh CDR Board members and officers to help lead us into the next phase of revitalizing Coatesville.
The CDR meets the second Thursday of each month in the Community Building at 7pm.
As I wrap up this update, we are moving into the holiday season. I’ll be back late in the 1st quarter of 2019 with a new update for you.
Wishing you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving and a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Be safe and stay warm.
Thank you.
Steven Schultz
President, Coatesville Downtown Revitalization
