Neillsville's Connect Communities Kick Off Event Held Thursday Evening
Friday, October 2nd, 2015 -- 11:34 AM
(Story Courtesy of Kevin Grap) -About 20 energized Neillsville business owners and residents attended the WEDC Connect Communities Neillsville Kick Off event on Thursday, October 1st.Neillsville's Connect Communities Committee filled out the application and Neillsville was selected to be a Connect Communities City. Connect Communities is an educating and mentoring program sponsored by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation to help revitalize commercial districts and the whole town with a focus on downtown revitalization.
Neillsville's Connect Communities Committee's stated mission is "to initiate a creative and successful approach to revitalizing downtown Neillsville." Ellen Clark, City Clerk of Neillsville and a member of the committee, has been vital in bringing Neillsville into this program.
Ellen said the benefits of Neillsville being in the program include "access to educational materials and resources through the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and Association. We can take this material and what we've learned and bring it back to the community and give to business owners and government officials. This will allow businesses to help themselves and that goes along with our motto. Our motto is 'Educate-Empower-Transform.' And we hope to educate the community and businesses, empower them to move forward and hopefully transform our community and downtown."
She also stated that the program is two years and a community can apply for another two years after that, but they hope to become a Main Street Program participant by that time.
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.