Townsman, 1991-04, Page 7however, realized wishing to save the
old buildings doesn't save them: there
must be an economic base to help
save the buildings. They designed the
Main Street programme to try to help
the merchants of small town main
streets boost their economic circum-
stances to the point they could afford
to preserve the beautiful old build-
ings.In towns like Perth, Ont. and
Nelson, B.C. the programme had
helped transform the downtown area
and breath new life into the communi-
ty.
That's what leaders in Seaforth
were hoping to do when they applied
to be part of the programme five years
ago. When Heritage Canada agreed to
accept Seaforth into the programme it
became the smallest town in Canada
to be involved. And with good reason
because the Main Street programme
doesn't come cheap. Under the agree-
ment signed between Heritage Cana-
da, the town and the BIA, the local
costs were $47,000 a year for the
three years of the programme. While
the community picked up the ongoing
costs, including the salary of the Main
Street Co-ordinator, Heritage Canada
trained the co-ordinator, paid for a
resource team to study the needs of
the town and provided the expertise it
had gained in 71 previous Main Street
programmes, drawing on the results of
the earlier U.S. National Trust for
Historical Preservation in the United
States in the 1970s.
For their money, the Seaforth lead-
ers got an enthusiastic, energetic Main
Street Co-ordinator in Tom Lemon.
He had unique qualifications for the
job having studied urban planning,
then went on to a masters degree in
landscape planning. The job as Main
Street Co-ordinator gave him a chance
to combine his interest in heritage
buildings with broader community
development.
But before he could begin his work
to help Seaforth improve its economic
situation it was necessary to identify
just what the problems were. A Her-
itage Canada team made up of a mar-
keting specialist, an economic/
community development person, an
architect and a representative of the
Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs
put the community under the micro -
In the fall of 1987 Tom Lemon shows the sketch of what Box Furniture
could look like -part of the dream of the Main Street programme.
scope: analysing what was going on in
the community, discovering the weak-
nesses in the community when it came
to competing for shopping dollars,
new industries and businesses and
identifying what opportunities the
community might exploit for a more
prosperous future.
Their research, plus further work
done by a student working for the
Huron County Planning and Develop-
ment Department, showed Seaforth
was losing a startling $15-$25 million
in shoppers' dollars each year from its
primary shopping area to competing
shopping areas - most of that going to
the cast side of Stratford.
A shopping basket comparison of
the price of everything from a 3/8"
power drill to a box of Pampers to
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TOWNSMAN/APRIL-MAY 1991 5