Officials from the Iowa Economic Development Authority were back in Guthrie Center recently to meet with committee chairs and members of Main Street Guthrie Center.

Shannon Neff has taken on the leadership role for the organization’s Promotion Committee, and she says the IEDA has given each committee tasks they’d like to see accomplished before their next visit.  Neff describes what the first task is specifically for Promotion.

“We like to consider the Promotion Committee kind of the ‘fun’ committee.  We get to eventually work on the special events, retail promotions and things like that.  I think that will be a lot of fun but before we can start doing that, some of the small steps we need to do is identify what Guthrie Center’s image is going to be and develop an image campaign.”

Developing that image campaign isn’t the only responsibility though for Promotion. Neff talks about what else they’re up to.

“(We’re) just starting to get the word out to the businesses that are in the downtown district to let them know what Main Street is and how it can help them by building relationships with the business owners.  And then (we) also need to get our signs hung at the district boundaries so that folks know that they are now in a Main Street district.”

Neff says the Promotion Committee has a deadline of April 30th for Main Street district signs to be hung.  Her committee is coordinating with City Hall to establish where signs can be placed.

IEDA officials will be back in town the first week in June to check on Main Street Guthrie Center’s progress.