GHHWA dedicated to Main Street

Paul Kadzik

Special to the Gateway

In the past I’ve written two articles discussing the potential for the loss of vibrancy in our downtown and heralding the formation of a new organization, the Gig Harbor Historic Waterfront Association.

This GHHWA has been dedicating itself to using the nationally known and highly successful Main Street™ Approach to address downtown and waterfront issues.

The Main Street™ Approach is a program established by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and is supported by Washington state. It relies on a public-private partnership involving many stakeholders, including local government, the financial community, property owners, civic organizations, the chamber of commerce, residents and local businesses.

Broadly stated, the mission and goals of the GHHWA are to preserve and enhance the existing character of the waterfront district while encouraging economic stability and growth. The Main Street™ organization emphasizes that local affiliates must be mission-driven as opposed to membership-driven. That means all programs and policies of the organization must support its mission and be good for the community as a whole.

Main Street™ also requires using a Four Point Approach in which a majority of the work is carried out by four committees: Organization; Economic Development; Design; and Promotion.

Each committee is populated with volunteers who are committed to the mission of the GHHWA. Guidance and direction is given by the policy-making Board of Directors, which is made up of a broad range of community representatives.

This approach has been successful in more than 2,000 communities throughout the United States.

Organization

Since its inception, GHHWA has spent a considerable amount of time in organization. It has obtained an IRS Not-For-Profit 501(c)(3) status and was accepted into the state’s Main Street™ program.

That provides the potential for GHHWA and the city to be eligible for various grants, and it allows for additional funding through a Business and Occupation tax matching program — allowing some local taxes to remain within our community.

GHHWA has obtained funding from a variety of other sources, including the City of Gig Harbor, Threshold Group, individual donors and paid memberships. An executive director has been hired, and the Board of Directors has been expanded.

It now includes representatives from the retail community, the Gig Harbor Peninsula Area Chamber of Commerce, the historic society, the fishing community, city administration, the service clubs and the downtown residential district.

Vacancies exist in the financial and property owner categories, and, some turnover on the board and in the executive director’s position notwithstanding, the GHHWA is under a strong and enthusiastic leadership.

Economic development

The Economic Development Committee has been focused on generating data which will assist in understanding the economic base of the waterfront district. More than 160 district businesses have been identified as to ownership, type of business, location, square footage and parking.

Having and understanding this data is invaluable to new business recruitment and is critical in any discussion on maintaining a vibrant district. The committee also has provided numerous opportunities for local businesses to keep current through Webinar seminars and has worked with interested merchants on promoting their events through the GHHWA Web site and through new e-mail strategies.

Design

The Design Committee has developed and published a new district map. It is in the conceptual stage of a facelift of Skansie Brothers Park, with the goal of providing a plan and implementation strategy for improving the usability and attractiveness of our most important waterfront public space.

Additionally, in response to city budget cuts, GHHWA provided new light-emitting diodes for last year’s Christmas tree at Skansie Park and will do the same for the Finholm tree this year.

GHHWA provided a crew of volunteers to water the waterfront district flower baskets this summer, and it organized and coordinated replacing all the American flags in the district.

Promotions

The Promotions Committee has been occupied with continuing and improving the successful activities of the past: Candlelight Christmas was expanded to a full weekend; Chalk the Walk added the Finholm District; and this year’s Halloween event will include pumpkin decorating. New activities are being discussed for next year, with the possibility of a wine and food tasting event.

GHHWA manned a booth at all of this and last summer’s concerts in the park, where information was provided to community members about the organization and local businesses were promoted.

GHHWA supports the waterfront community in many ways, but the whole community has supported GHHWA even more. In addition to the previously mentioned financial support, the organization has benefited from thousands of hours of volunteerism on its various projects and activities.

I encourage everyone who is interested in the work that this dedicated organization is doing, to call 253-514-0071 or visit www.gigharborwaterfront.org. Find out what you can do to help.

Paul Kadzik is from Gig Harbor and serves on the Gig Harbor City Council. He can be reached by e-mail at paulkadzik@comcast.net.