Main Street Program Alive and Well in Maple Creek

The Town of Maple Creek is continuing their work through the Main Street Program to boost economic activity and promote tourism.

Maple Creek was chosen as one of the four pilot communities for the Main Street Program in 2011, and has since been implementing the patented Main Street four-point approach to downtown revitalization, which includes promotion, economic restructuring, community organization, street scape design, and heritage conservation.

Main Street Program Coordinator for the Town, Royce Pettyjohn says they have been working hard at it over the last three and a half years.

"We've seen quite a few upgrades to the street scape to make the downtown a more visually appealing place to be, but also the property owners downtown have taken advantage of the financial incentives that are associated with the Main Street Program to aid them in restoring their facades back to their original appearance," he said. "Slip covers, vinyl siding, and all of the things that are sort of inconsistent with the historic look have been stripped away on many of the buildings, and new windows that are more in-keeping with the dimensions and appearance of the original, or paint colours, mid-cornices, and so on and so forth are all being added."

So far, about 15 buildings in Maple Creek's downtown have undergone renovations. Because of the success of the four pilot communities, the provincial government has taken the Main Street Program on as a regular program to aid in rural revitalization and economic development, and as long as a community maintains their accredited status, committees can continue to utilize the program in their communities. "The Town of Maple Creek is going to continue implementing main street and doing as much as we can to beautify our community and make it a real destination for people that are interested in shopping, dining, touring, and potentially investing in the community as well," said Pettyjohn.

"We have noticed that visitation in our downtown has increased," he added. "A number of the property owners in the downtown have indicated that their traffic through their business has increased. One of them even went so far as to say that they've noticed since they completed their full facade restoration, that their business has doubled over this time last year, which is great."

The Main Street Program sponsors a number of downtown street festivals and events which helps to bring people in and showcase the work communities are doing, and on Friday the 6th Annual Maple Creek Heritage Festival took place and was a well attended celebration.