Monday, March 1, 2010

Main Street Arkansas Update - March 1, 2010

Take the Main Street Trends Survey
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2010Trends

Main Street Arkansas Calendar March 1 – 5, 2010
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MONDAY
TUESDAY Greg, Caroline: Rogers- Resource Team; Nancy – Batesville (merchant visits); Cary – out
WEDNESDAY Greg, Caroline: Rogers – Resource Team
THURSDAY Greg, Caroline: Rogers – Resource Team; Cary, Susan, Nancy, Mark – Siloam Springs (merchant & board visit) & Rogers – Resource Team presentation
FRIDAY Greg, Caroline, Susan, Cary – Rogers
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IN THIS ISSUE:
Downtowns Critical to Economic Development
CA LEED Laws & Preservation at Conflict
Good MSA Press
Main Street Ozark in Talk Business Quarterly
List Your Heritage Month Event
Main Street Paragould Press
Input Requested for Press on “Arkansas Institutions”
Smart Growth Assistance – Letters of Interest Accepted



Downtowns Critical to Economic Development
http://www.talkbusiness.net/Weblogs/WeblogItemDetail.aspx?WebLogItemID=26aed39b-9437-4df4-8468-8b5d354c790f&WeblogID=2c1ca2ae-06e6-4883-9e3a-554f31d9db55

California LEED Laws & Historic Preservation at Conflict
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123861278

More Great Press from Rex Nelson

http://www.rexnelsonsouthernfried.com/?p=709

Main Street Ozark in Talk Business Quarterly
http://mainstreetarkansas.blogspot.com/2010/02/downtown-ozark-in-talk-business.html

List Your Heritage Month Events for Extra Publicity
Folks, if you have any activities scheduled for May, be sure and enter them at http://www.arkansasheritage.com/heritage_month/addevents2010.asp.

Main Street Paragould Press
http://www.paragoulddailypress.com/articles/2010/02/23/local_news/doc4b841588bd2a7568466088.txt

Input Requested for Arkansas Institutions
http://www.rexnelsonsouthernfried.com/?p=688
Roby Brock of Talk Business Quarterly charged Rex Nelson with writing about “things, people, places that make Arkansas what it is — things you need to do or experience to really get your Arkansas bona fides.” Rex wants your input. Click on the link above if you have something you want to brag about.

Request for Letters of Interest: Smart Growth Implementation Assistance

Free technical assistance available!

The Development, Community, and Environment Division in EPA’s Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation is seeking applications for technical assistance from communities that want to incorporate smart growth in their future development to meet environmental and other community goals. This request is being coordinated under the interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities. Staff from HUD and DOT will assist in the provision of this technical assistance.

Eligible entities are tribal, local, regional, and state governments, and nonprofit organizations that have a demonstrated partnership with a governmental entity. Letters of interest are due at 3:00 pm EST, April 9, 2010.

EPA has identified some key topics in which communities are likely to benefit from technical assistance:

- climate change
- equitable development
- financing and planning infrastructure investments
- hazard mitigation plans
- removing local barriers to implementing LEED-ND
- suburban retrofit
- transportation solutions for rural communities and places without rail
- cities in transition (significant population loss, poverty, or economic deterioration)

Proposals are not limited to requests for technical assistance in only these thematic areas; other topics for assistance are welcome and encouraged, provided they demonstrate cutting-edge challenges and the possibility of replicable solutions. The type of work may incorporate policy analysis and review, planning and visioning processes, scorecard/ranking criteria development and assessment, and/or other elements pertinent to the role of the applicant.

Selected communities or states will receive assistance in the form of a multi-day visit from a team of experts organized by EPA, HUD and DOT and other national partners to work with local leaders. EPA plans to assist three to four communities over a period of twelve months. The Agency anticipates announcing the selected communities in fall of 2010.

For more information and application materials, visit http://epa.gov/smartgrowth/2010_0128_rfli.html.