Visit Downtown Beatrice, Nebraska
The 2019 event brought out over 1,000 kids to enjoy trick or treating downtown shops and partake in several activities.
Here are a few images from this year’s event.
The 2020 event will be held on Thursday October 29th!
Gage County held its first county wide giving day on September 10th 2019, that single day of giving resulted in around $160,000 in donations for 47 nonprofits across the county.
Main Street Beatrice was one of those nonprofits. The project put forward by Main Street Beatrice was for downtown art, especially a mural project by the downtown theaters. Over $2,000 was raised for the project on that single day!
Main Street Beatrice wishes to thank all those who supported our project and that of our areas worth causes. We look forward to continuing our work for Beatrice and look forward to next year’s Big Give event as well.
For more information about Big Give Gage please visit: https://www.biggivegage.org/
2019 proved to be a successful Ribfest and Lincoln Driven 2 Give Event during Homestead Days!
This year’s Lincoln Driven to Give Event successfully raised $5,470 thanks to the support of community members who took a free test drive with Beatrice Ford Lincoln. A picture of the check exchange is attached.
This was our 8th consecutive year of doing a Ford/Lincoln Driven 2 Give, Drive Event benefiting Main Street Beatrice. In those 8 years, we have raised $26,650. This year’s total of $5,470.00 was an increase of $1,120 over last year! Funds raised this year come directly from the Lincoln Motor Company and will be used by Main Street Beatrice for Downtown Improvement Projects. These funds could not be raised without the support of the community and Beatrice Ford Lincoln.
Main Street Beatrice has been actively working to see improvements happen downtown. Since 2016 there has been a net gain of 21 businesses downtown bringing the total up to 175 businesses located downtown. In 2018 the community saw over $3 million invested into downtown projects and we are nearing $2 million spent on improvements in 2019 thus far. Main Street Beatrice has worked to add sidewalk amenities downtown this year and has helped see bike racks, trash receptacles, and public parking lot improvements made. Future projects include spearheading new Canoe/Kayak river access development, downtown art murals, and the creation of new development tools to help see continued growth of businesses and property improvements.
The Lincoln Driven to Give event was held in conjunction with Main Street Beatrice’s Ribfest event held annually during Homestead Days®. This year’s event proved successful despite a rainy event day. The event attracted right at 1,000 attendees and raised additional funds for Main Street Beatrice projects.
Starting on Friday May 10th 2019 a new wave of bike racks are being installed downtown. By the end of the project a total of 32 bike racks will be placed downtown.
The bike racks are an amenity for tourist and area residents alike and will give those using our trails or traveling about town a safe and convenient place to park and secure their bicycle while patronizing downtown businesses.
This project has been made possible by Main Street Beatrice, The City of Beatrice, Beatrice Plus, The Coffin Foundation, Hydo Properties and the Gage County Historical Society.
Nebraska Main Street Communities Achieve 2019 National Accreditation
Lincoln, NE (April 23, 2019) –Beatrice, Falls City, Fremont, Grand Island, and Wayne have been designated as Accredited Main Street America™ programs for meeting rigorous performance standards set by the National Main Street Center. Each year, the National Main Street Center and its Coordinating Program partners announce the list of accredited Main Street America programs in recognition of their exemplary commitment to preservation-based economic development and community revitalization through the Main Street Approach
“We are thrilled to honor this year’s nationally accredited Main Street America programs for their commitment to preservation-based economic development and the revitalization of their commercial districts,” says Patrice Frey, President & CEO of the National Main Street Center. “The power of Main Street shines across the country through these vibrant communities, who have all worked to generate impressive economic returns, preserve community character, and celebrate local history. In 2018 alone, Main Street America programs generated $4.93 billion in local reinvestment, helped open 5,310 net new businesses, generated 25,301 net new jobs, catalyzed the rehabilitation of 8,146historic buildings, and clocked 2.2 million volunteer hours.”
Each community’s performance is annually evaluated by the Nebraska Main Street Network, which works in partnership with the National Main Street Center to identify the local programs that meet ten national performance standards. Evaluation criteria determines the communities that are building comprehensive and sustainable revitalization efforts and include standards such as fostering strong public-private partnerships, documenting programmatic progress, and actively preserving historic buildings.
Main Street America has been helping revitalize older and historic commercial districts for almost 40 years. Today, it is a network of more than 1,600 neighborhoods and communities, rural and urban, who share both a commitment to place and to building stronger communities through preservation-based economic development. Since 1980, communities participating in the program have leveraged more than $79.12 billion in new public and private investment, generated640,017 net new jobs and 143,613 net new businesses, and rehabilitated more than 284,936 buildings. Main Street America is a program of the nonprofit National Main Street Center, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Elizabeth Chase, Executive Director, Nebraska Main Street Network
