CHEYENNE – Inside Sundance Hardware hangs a monochrome photograph from the late 19th century.

The photograph features cowboys leaning against a building on the town’s main street before Sundance even had sidewalks. It reminds Sundance Hardware owner Steve Lenz of both the town’s progress and its potential.

“Sundance is the first full-service community when you enter Wyoming between Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone,” Lenz said. “We think we are uniquely positioned to give that traveler their first Western experience, but we don’t feel like we’re there yet. We need the help of the Wyoming Business Council and the Main Street program.”

Sundance is one of three communities, along with Lusk and Worland, strengthening their futures by joining the Wyoming Main Street program. The Business Council, Wyoming’s economic development agency, runs the downtown revitalization program.

Sundance today became the seventh affiliate community in the Wyoming Main Street program. Lusk and Worland have joined as aspiring communities, a new category.

Local leaders from each town hope to adapt the National Main Street Center’s approach to organization, promotion, design and economic vitality in a way that suits the character of their communities.

“We wanted to join because we have active business people in the community interested in improving the appearance of our main street, so it stays vital,” said Jackie Bredthauer, executive director of the Niobrara County Chamber of Commerce.

 

 

Lusk wanted to become a Wyoming Main Street community before a June 2015 flood devastated downtown. The Niobrara River coursed through Main Street, destroying 14 homes and damaging 80 more. Nearly 50 businesses suffered damage.

Lusk boasts unique shopping and lodging, a nationally-recognized pizza parlor and four highways connecting the town to the rest of the region.

Road closures and flood damage led to 350,000 fewer travelers and $2.1 million in lost revenue.

“That’s a lot of money for our small community,” Bredthauer said. “We want to let people know we’re open for business again.”

The community’s commitment to the Main Street program intensified in the wake of the flood, Bredthauer said.

“We are hoping to find new resources through the Main Street program to get people to come and stay in Lusk,” Bredthauer said.

Lusk leaders will learn redevelopment strategies from neighbors statewide – Wyoming Main Street now comprises 18 communities.

Bredthauer and others will also attend the National Main Street Center conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, next month. The idea is to network with program veterans who have successfully put Main Street strategies to work.

A different National Main Street conference four years ago in Des Moines, Iowa, sowed the seeds for today’s program in Worland.

 

 

Terry Sutherland attended that conference. He was the executive director of the Worland Chamber of Commerce at the time.

“We toured six communities, from 250 people to 15,000 people,” Sutherland said. “We knew that was a program we wanted in Worland.”

Since then, Sutherland has opened a pet store, which he runs based on some of the principles he learned through the Main Street program. He helped Worland redesign its master plan with an eye toward starting a program.

Support for Main Street has reached critical mass.

“From city officials to residents, and not necessarily just business owners, but people who want to help the economy,” Sutherland said. “We now have a huge pool of people, and the attitude from many of those people was, ‘Tell us what you want us to do, and we’ll be there.’”

Worland leaders want higher occupancy rates downtown, and more residences above those shops.

Virtually every building on Worland’s main street has historical significance, Sutherland added. He wants to learn how to get those structures on the National Register of Historic Places.

“We don’t know all the answers yet, and that’s why we are looking for help,” Sutherland said.

As aspiring communities, Lusk and Worland are eligible for training and planning grants through Wyoming Main Street. They will also receive consultations from Wyoming Main Street Program Manager Linda Klinck.

“The idea behind the new aspiring category for Main Street communities is that successful programs need many things in place before they start,” Klinck said.

Klinck will help those communities organize a board of directors, install bylaws, receive proper training and understand the best practices for revitalizing their downtowns.

The process has proven successful throughout Wyoming. The 15 existing Main Street communities in 2015 added 65 downtown businesses and created nearly 300 full- and part-time jobs.

The downtowns in those communities are also looking nicer thanks to 155 rehabilitation and public improvement projects.

Public officials have supported the programs by providing $2.69 million. The money has leveraged $24.36 million in private investment.

The new businesses and improved infrastructure have galvanized an army of volunteers in those communities. Volunteers contributed more than 25,900 hours to Main Street activities last year.

“We look forward to bringing in our three new communities because we see how the program has made a difference for others,” Klinck said.