Knox Mayor Dennis Estok is putting out another call for volunteers to help with downtown revitalization efforts. Another informational meeting is planned for Monday night at 6:00 at the Nancy J. Dembowski Community Center.
Estok told the city council Tuesday that he’s looking for anyone who wants to see Main Street be revitalized, whether they live in Knox or not. “Anybody from the public – you don’t have to be a business owner – you can belong to this committee,” the mayor said. “The more, the better.”
The goal is to get an Indiana Main Street designation from the Office of Community and Rural Affairs, which would open the door to additional grant opportunities. Designations aren’t given to cities and towns themselves, but typically to nonprofit organizations set up to coordinate revitalization efforts. Specifically, they do that by setting up committees to focus on four key points: economic vitality, design, promotion, and organization.
There isn’t much time to get that up and running. A letter of intent is due by December 4, with the full application due by March 5. “You have to be organized by then,” Estok said. “You have to have your officers, your committee name. You’ve got to have a budget. So there’s a lot of work to get done between now and March 5, and that’s why we’re pushing these meetings is whoever’s interested, they need to show up, so we can get going with it.”
Estok said the first meeting held earlier this month only drew one person other than city council members, but four more have since expressed interest. Council Member Don Kring noted that downtown revitalization is something that everybody talks about, and now is the time to get involved.
