[OMS_MANAGERS] Downtown Update - June 2023 Newsletter

[La Grande Main Street Downtown]

June 2023 Newsletter LA GRANDE MAIN STREET DOWNTOWN About Us Support Our Mission Hello OMS, We are in the full bloom of spring and will begin to gallop into summer. May was notable for the first in a series of Women in Business events and the hanging of the Downtown flower baskets. June promises to be fun for the young and the young at heart with our Touch-A-Truck event, hosted in conjunction with the La Grande Parks and Recreation Department. Looking into the future, July will bring a new and exciting Crazy Days and August is going to usher in a bigger and better Eastern Oregon Beer Festival. A Note from Mary Ann Miesner, President of the LGMSD Board of Directors Summer is fast approaching and La Grande Main Street Downtown (LDMSD) is working diligently to make our downtown area more attractive for the community.  Through the wonderful efforts of our Executive Director, Monica McLaughlin, and our committees, new and exciting activities and events are happening in the downtown area. Please remember that LGMSD’s role is to bring people together into our downtown; however, it is the job of the businesses to get them into their stores. In January, the La Grande Main Street Downtown Board of Directors brought on many new Board members. This Board is committed to revising the Main Street program and bringing about some changes as to how the program operates. The new Board is passionate about creating a beautiful and successful downtown area. We are dedicated to completing the streetscape and to establishing a cohesive downtown area.  In order to help make some much needed changes, we are inviting you to a Town Hall meeting this summer in the Community Room of the La Grande Public Library. We will send out an email with information in the coming weeks. We are seeking input from our many businesses, property owners, and community stakeholders to help us achieve our goals and objectives. Please attend this meeting and provide us with your insights and opinions. Women in Business Our first LGMSD Women in Business event, sponsored by Soroptimist International of La Grande, was held on Tuesday May 23rd at The Laurel, the newest female-owned restaurant in town. Over 50 La Grande businesswoman and allies participated in networking activities and brainstormed how they could support each other and the Shop Local initiative for Downtown La Grande.  Monica McLaughlin, Executive Director of LGMSD, said of the event:  What an event the inaugural Women in Business Symposium was! As I stood on the stairs of The Laurel listening to the buzz of connections being made and the brainstorming happening around me, I felt joy and gratitude for our Shop Local Committee for their hard work on this event. I heard over and over that night that the women of La Grande have been wanting something like this for a long time. We had everything from Realtors, and health coaches, to candle makers and new entrepreneurs like The Compost Chick and K Voelz Wines. The Laurel was the perfect setting for this event, as they are the newest restaurant in town (and women owned at that). The food and drinks they provided were delicious. We are so thankful for them for allowing us to bring the community together in their space.   To the women who put themselves and their dreams out there, I want to thank you. You are an inspiration to me and to this community. You are doing what sets your soul on fire, and I know that isn’t ever easy, but always worth it. You continue to inspire those around you without even trying to, by just being you, and following your dreams. Keep loving your passion, keep bringing the world your gift and, most of all, keep doing what sets your soul on fire. Thank you for sharing your passion with our town--you are one of the very many reasons it is so great! Remember, we can all help support local entrepreneurs!   Oregon Main Street Revitalization Grant   Breaking News! La Grande Main Street Downtown (LGMSD) was honored to be awarded a $200,000 grant from the Oregon Main Street Revitalization Program. The grant will match funds up to $200,000 to take off the facade on the old Elks building, the former Maridell Center, which is now the Evermine Labels building. Taking off the facade and replacing the historic windows on this beautiful building will be done in compliance with State Historic Preservation Standards, as required by the grant. The facade, window, and brick restoration project is Phase One of this monumental project, with some very exciting future plans for this property! More information to come.   The Oregon Main Street Revitalization Program was created by the Oregon State Legislature in 2015 and uses lottery-backed bonds to encourage economic development. The program is overseen by the Oregon Heritage Department, a division of Oregon Parks and Recreation. Grants were awarded to projects that best fit within the community's long-range plan for downtown vitality and community needs. We are so excited for our new neighbors and their project, and we thank them for their continued hard work and partnership to make La Grande the best it can be! Flower Baskets   The flower baskets are up and they are making La Grande even lovelier! The baskets were grown by the Union FFA students and contain a delightful selection of seasonal perennials.  A shout out to the EOU men’s wrestling team for their help with putting the flower baskets up, as well as La Grande Parks and Recreation for instructing the volunteers in the art of hanging flower baskets. A special thank you to Evie, Corri, and Andi for their efforts in rounding up sponsors and organizing this incredible effort.   Most of all, we want to thank these businesses and individuals for sponsoring the flower baskets this year-- we couldn’t have done it without you!   New Partners Thank you to our newest Partners who have joined in our efforts to make Downtown La Grande a more vibrant, stable and beautiful place for the community to gather to shop, eat, work, live, and play: K. Voelz Wine Mamacita’s Le Bebe Cakes Eastern Oregon Beer Fest We have a new Eastern Oregon Beer Fest committee working hard to put on a great event for our region! Lots of local vendors, food trucks, beer and cider are on tap for a wonderful day at the Union County Fair Grounds! Tickets are on sale now, available HERE Our events calender is located HERE The highlight of June will be Touch-A-Truck, held in conjunction with the La Grande Parks and Recreation Department on June 10th from 11 AM to 1 PM. Up and down Adams Avenue, there will be working vehicles of all descriptions—tractors, lawn mowers, dump trucks, fire trucks, police cars, and big rigs—for the young and the young at heart to learn about, climb on, sit in, and touch (and maybe even go varoom). There will also be free face painting, food vendors, and more. Looking beyond June, mark your calendars for July 14th and 15th for the over 60-year-old celebration of Crazy Days in La Grande. This year’s festivities promise to be better than ever, with sidewalk sales, local vendors, a car show, food, live music, and activities for kids.  Gazing further into the future, the Eastern Oregon Beer Festival is a must-do summer event.  Scheduled for Saturday, August 19th, the Beer Fest will feature beers from breweries across Eastern Oregon, the Pacific Northwest, and beyond. There will be live music, local craft vendors, great food, and an opportunity to interact with the brewers. All general admission and VIP passes come with a commemorative tasting glass. Tickets are available now at:  http://www.eobeerfest.org/ We're always looking for volunteers! There's something for everyone with our different committees. Give back to your community through work in one of our main committees (Promotion, Design, Economic Vitality, or Outreach) or help downtown clean up, or event a specific event! Click HERE to see all the different opportunities SOME COMMITTEE REPORTS   Promotions Committee -- Shawna McKinnis, Chair   The Promotions Committee has kept busy with the First Annual Spring Spree in April, which was a great Saturday hit for our downtown business participants! On May 23rd, we kicked off our quarterly Women in Business networking event at The Laurel, brought to you by our Shop Local subcommittee. The gathering brought over 50 women to downtown to network, visit, and collaborate. Many thanks to our sponsors, Soroptimist Int'l of La Grande! Be sure and watch our Facebook page for the second quarter event in September!    Next up, we are participating in the Touch-A-Truck event scheduled for June 10th from 11 AM to 1 PM in partnership with the La Grande Parks and Recreation Department. The event will feature all kinds of trucks and assorted vehicles for the kids to see, touch, and explore a little. All of the action will be happening right downtown – you won’t want your littles to miss it! As I write this, we are setting the final agenda for the 2023 Crazy Days scheduled for July 14th and 15th. We are incredibly excited, as this year we are showcasing some new fun. Be sure to mark your calendars for these upcoming events and enjoy some fun with family and friends in Downtown La Grande – WHERE THE FUN IS HAPPENING! Design Committee -- Cassie Hibbert and Evie Stacey, written by Amanda May, Committee member This was a busy month for our design committee members! Union FFA grew beautiful flowers for our hanging baskets in time for our scheduled hanging day. They look absolutely lovely, and we were so thrilled to be able to work with local students to source the flowers. If you see Karie Kelley or any of the Union FFA students, be sure to tell them a big thank you for their work! Rob’s Speedy delivery volunteered their vehicle to pick up and drop off the flowers and Corri Klebaum and the EOU Men’s wrestling team, along with La Grande Parks and Rec donated their labor to install all 35 baskets. This project was such a wonderful collaboration of local volunteers, so be sure to thank them with your patronage and support whenever possible! Design committee members sought donations from local businesses to fundraise just under $2,500 for this project, and we think the baskets do so much to beautify downtown! A HUGE thank you to Corri Klebaum for being at the helm of this project.While the downtown baskets got most of the attention this past month, we are still working diligently on other projects. Ginny Mammen generously shared her list of downtown ghost signs with our committee to further the downtown waypoints project. We are looking forward to developing these projects as the summer excitement unfolds! Outreach Committee – Nicole Felty, Chair   This May, we successfully put together an all-organization training session in collaboration with the State Coordinator from Oregon Main Street. The training was highly informative for all participants, equipping us with valuable skills and knowledge to enhance our Main Street efforts. Big thanks to Sheri Stewart for her invaluable contribution and all the members who took the time to attend!  Next up is our Community Town Hall event, which we will hold this summer for the public. These town halls are a forum to foster community engagement, gather feedback, and address any concerns. By bringing back these events, Main Street is aiming to strengthen our ties with the community, promote transparency, and create a space for open dialogue. We encourage all community members to participate. Our final date will be announced in the coming weeks!  Eastern Oregon Beer Fest Committee – Stephanie Hansen, Chair   As promised, the Beer Fest committee has received signed contracts from bands, as well as food and craft vendors to bring this event together for entertainment.  Mary Ann has worked diligently on securing brewers and we still have a few left to contact for a final commitment.  We are still earning the trust from our local businesses for sponsorship and Jacque has gone above and beyond in her efforts. The team has pulled together for our commitment to our sponsors and honoring our promises to them this year.  Committee members have meeting outside of our monthly meetings to ensure we are helping each other out and actually functioning as a team.  This next month we will work closer with Kim in getting all donated items from Eastern Oregon Rental secured and working on our outreach to ensure volunteers are ready to show up for set up on the day of events and tear down.      CALL FOR VENDORS We have some wonderful events coming up! Are you a local food/craft vendor? -Touch-A-Truck June 10th -Crazy Days July 14th and 15th -Eastern Oregon Beer Festival August 19th -Community Harvest Festival October 7th If you would like to participate in any or all of these events or would like more information, check it out at https://www.lagrandemainstreet.org/vendor-applications.html. Community Charging Rebates Program   Tucker Billman, Manager of Government Affairs at Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative, has announced the application period for the Community Charging Rebates Program being offered by the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT). A two-page fact sheet is featured on the link below for the landing page of information on ODOT’s website. These rebates can stack with OTEC’s existing EV rebates. The application period opens June 13th and closes August 15th. Oregon Department of Transportation : ODOT’s Community Charging Rebates Program : Climate Office : State of Oregon Mr. Billman encourages everyone to take a look at the fact sheet to get a better idea of how the program functions and what projects would be eligible. Please feel free to contact him with any questions at Main Phone: (541) 524-2824 or cell phone: (541) 519-3553 or by email at tbillman at otec.coop. Meet LGMSD   Check out the newest feature on the LGMSD webpage: Meet LGMSD.  Each week, we take you behind the scenes to introduce you to the folks that make us who we are—the Board, the Committees, the volunteers, and the staff. Each week, we plan to introduce you to one of the many individuals who contribute so much to La Grande Main Street and ultimately making La Grande a vibrant, stable, beautiful place to gather, shop, eat, work, live, and play. So far, we have profiled Mary Ann Miesner, the President of our Board of Directors, Joshua Annas, the Vice-President of our Board of Directors, Shawna McKinnis, the Secretary of our Board of Directors, Suzannah Moore Hemann, the Treasurer of our Board of Directors, Carol Summers, Nicole Felty, Timothy Bishop, Bri Troutman, Evie Stacey, Stephanie Hansen, Lauren Babcock (and Ubi)., Mike Craig, Jacque Harvey, and Tisha Comer. Next, we will be featuring Jeremy Robertson, member of the Economic Vitality Committee. Check it out on our website at: https://www.lagrandemainstreet.org/news This year is carrying on with fun and exciting events and a forward-moving spirit. Join us in the adventure that is La Grande Main Street Downtown.! Interested in being a Partner? Click here 2023 LGMSD Partners Ad Dad Advantage Mortgage Aguilera's Amazing Aromas Allied Mortgage - a division of Mann Mortgage LLC Associated Design and Engineering BELLA Mercantile Be Well Studio Benchwarmers Pub & Grill Beyond the Lens Photography Birddog Glass Blue Summit Realty Bout Time Boutique Cam Credits Carol Summers City of La Grande Clanktronix/The Archives Claudson's Sew and Soak Community Bank Community Kindness of Eastern Oregon Community Merchants Connected Professional Accountants LLC Country Financial, Paul Swigert Designs By Stef Dochos Dirty Girls Detailing DraWiki Eastern Oregon Title Edward Jones - Shawn Mangum Eleven Fifteen Spa Elkhorn Media Group EOAliveTV EONI Eastern Oregon University Elkhorn Media Group Fairway Independent Mortgage Fitzgerald's Flowers Globe Furniture Grande Ronde Hospital Grande Ronde Soap and Bath Guyer and Associates Hines Meat Company. John Howard and Associates Josh Annas Katie Martin Custom Designs La Grande Theatres Les Schwab Tire Center Let'Er Wrap Longbranch Lucy's Boutiques at the Market Place Underground Mamacita's International Grille Market Place Fresh Foods Mary Ann and Arlan Miesner Merlyn's Catering MJ Goss Motors Mountain Valley Therapy Mountain Works Nate Conklin State Farm Nature's Pantry Northwest Furniture & Mattress OTEC Peak Lifestyle Studio Papa Murphys Take & Bake Raul's Taqueria Real Deals RE/MAX Real Estate Team Rob's Speedy Delivery Rosewood Cottage Scott's Heating and Air Side A Brewing Sim Shot Virtual Range Sorbenots Source One Business Consulting Tap That! Growlers, LLC Teal Cactus Ten Depot Street The Potter's House Timothy Bishop Travelodge Tyler Photo Co Union County Chamber of Commerce/Tourism Wheatland Insurance Wild Child Birth and Photo Woodsy Wicks ​Ziply Fiber   Upcoming Events La Grande Main Street 102 Depot Street La Grande, OR 97850 541-963-1223   Contact Us     Share This Email Share This Email Share This Email About Events Calendar News Contact La Grande Main Street Downtown | 102 Depot St, La Grande, OR 97850 Unsubscribe oms_managers at listsmart.osl.state.or.us Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice Sent by director at lagrandemainstreet.org powered by Try email marketing for free today!
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