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ELKINS -- For the first time in almost 10 years, Elkins Main Street will not be one of the organizations that helps plan and coordinate downtown activities.
Elkins Main Street, a downtown revitalization program that follows the National Main Street Center's community-based approach to preservation and development, got its start in Elkins in 2015, after the city graduated from the ON TRAC program to the Main Street designation.
Cities are required to participate in the ON TRAC program for at least two years before being eligible to apply for the Main Street West Virginia program.
Elkins Mayor Jerry Marco told The Inter-Mountain this week that Main Street has been put on hold and that the city was "hitting the reset button" on the program.
"We don't have a Main Street director at this time, but we technically still have a Main Street board of directors," Marco said. "We are going to try this for a little while and look at how we want to move forward with the program."
Lissa Eason was serving as Elkins Main Street director when the city recently announced the program was being put on hold
She was hired in 2023 to replace Vince Trimboli, who had just resigned after being hired the year before. Madalyn Higgins served as director for close to four years before Trimboli's hiring.
"I really enjoyed my time serving as director of Main Street," Eason, who now serves as director of the Beverly Heritage Center, told The Inter-Mountain. "I learned a lot and it was a great experience for me. I made a lot of friends along the way and it was nice to learn more about my community and help all the downtown businesses.
"(The City of Elkins) just decided that they weren't able to put a staff member in as director of Main Street at this time," she said.
Marco said the Main Street board of directors wants to meet with local businesses in the community about the program.
"We want to work with our downtown businesses and see what they want the Main Street function to be," Marco said. "We just kind of felt like now was the best time to go back and start over with everything. People have different visions of what (Main Street) should be and we want to get everyone together and find out what direction we want to go in."
Marco said he feels the program is important to the community and wants to work to make it beneficial for everyone.
"We still have an aspect of Main Street, we are just hitting the reset button on the program if you will," Marco said. "We are going to look at what worked in the past and see what we need to modify and go forward with it. I do think it is an asset to the community, but we have to figure out how to best serve everyone, or the majority, with it."
There are currently 13 certified Main Street organizations across the state of West Virginia.