Blog

Colville Together employs the Main Street Approach utilizing design, economic vitality, promotions, and organization to progress our program forward. 

What are we up to?

Design

Heritage Court – TBD

·     $3,500 from the Ramble Family for furnishings

·     $1,500 additional funds for improvements

·     Partnered with the City to install plantings

Economic Vitality

Shop Small Coupon Books – April-September

·     Available in April

·     Free to the public

·     $20 for merchant participation

Promotions

Summer Concert – August 28th

·     Fair weekend

·     Free to the public

·     Partnering with Chamber of Commerce

Organization

City Lodging Tax Application

·     City funds our Executive Director and some operating expenses

·     Approved for $14,280 in 2021

Main Street Tax Credit Incentive Program·      Receive $2,200 in donations in 2020

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WHAT HAVE WE ACCOMPLISHED?

Design

Façade & Building Improvement Grant Program Developed

·       $3,000 grants to downtown building owners

·       Grant application window closes February 25th

·       Buildings must be located downtown

Economic Vitality

Shop Small Saturday – November 28th, 2020

·       Booth at Heritage Court from 11am -3pm

·       Counted over 60 participants and 43 prize entries

·       Provided swag, maps, facemasks, and hand sanitizer

·       Provided 4 grand prizes for completed passports

Promotions

Updated website though Locable

Organization

Mercantile at colvilletogether.org

·       Post a product or gift certificate!

·       Visit colvilletogether.org for more information

Downtown Businesses Fund

·     Awarded cash grants of $500 to 9 downtown businesses Crowd funded for $4,500.

Received Working Washington II Grant

·       $10,300 for COVID recovery

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Partnering to enrich our community through planning and preserving Historic Downtown Colville, while cultivating our local economy.

Colville Together is excited to be able to offer the Façade & Building Improvement Grant to our downtown building owners. 

This program is offered by Colville Together with a desire to help improve and enhance the beauty of downtown Colville, preserve the historic nature of the streetscape, while making revitalization efforts affordable, creative, and community based. Each successful grant will be in the amount of $3,000 and awarded to property owners in the Colville Together focus area (3rd Ave to Birch Ave and Wynne St to Oak St).

 The eligible improvements include:

• New awnings or the restoration of existing awnings
•  Exterior painting and/or paint removal
•  Murals on exposed side walls
• Reparation and restoration of brickwork, wood, masonry, and stucco
• Exterior lighting
• Reusable signage, such as projecting, blade, and lighted
• Reparation and replacement of architectural details or materials
• Doors and windows, including garage doors
• Rehabilitation or compatible reconstruction of storefronts
• Removal of metal siding and exterior slip covers (surfaces)
• Building improvements that save the structural integrity of the building, i.e. roofs
• Any element that enhances the parking lot experience, i.e. landscaping, bike racks, etc.

Colville Together Design Committee administers the Façade & Building Improvement Grant Program and evaluates the applicant’s eligibility and need based on all the applicants. The number of grants available is dependent on annual funding for this program.  Grants will be available in coming years as well.

Any building owner whose property falls within the Colville Together focus area (3rd Ave to Birch Ave and Wynne St to Oak St) can apply for the Façade & Building Improvement Grant. Applications and the program guidelines are available at https://www.colvilletogether.org/facade-building-improvement-grant/. Completed Applications are due on February 25th and the grant will be closed.

Thank you Colville!  It was wonderful to see to everyone who participated in Shop Small Saturday for our fourth annual event.  It was a great success! Please continue to Shop Local and Shop Safe all season long to support our businesses. 

We will be drawing the winners for the passports on Friday this week, Dec. 4th, at 10m through Facebook Live.   If you were not able to turn in your passport on Saturday, please drop it off at the Chamber of Commerce office (996 S. Main Street Suite B) to be entered to win. 

We can’t wait to see you all downtown next year for Shop Small Saturday! 

Small Business Saturday 2020 is coming up November 28th!  For the fourth year, Colville “Neighborhood Champions,” are joining forces with Colville Together to host an event encouraging our community to shop local!

Stop by Heritage Court to collect your Small Business Saturday canvas shopping bags and your “passport”.  Then visit the participating businesses to collect your stamps at the local area businesses. A full passport will enter you to win the grand prize.   A collection of prizes donated by participating businesses! 

 Join us for Small Business Saturday 2020 and support Colville’s small businesses. It is more important now than ever!!!

SEATTLE – Colville Together, the newest nonprofit organization to earn Washington Main Street Community designation, received the coveted Organizational Excellence Award at Washington Main Street’s Excellence on Main Awards Ceremony on July 20, 2020. The ceremony was held virtually statewide with attendees safely celebrating at socially distanced watch parties.

At the encouragement of Colville City Planner RJ Keetch, a Main Street team began coming together in 2014. This effort was spearheaded by a steering committee of community volunteers, the Chamber of Commerce, Tri County Economic Development District, and the City of Colville. They were focused on learning more about the Main Street Approach™ and eventually joining the Washington Main Street network. As the committee gained momentum, funding became a hot topic. The group knew they wanted to hire an executive director, but the ability to hire staff felt like a chicken-or-the-egg conundrum.

The answer came in the form of formalizing the partnership as an independent but unified nonprofit now known as Colville Together, which then was able to apply for lodging tax dollars and other funding. In 2018, Colville Together hired Rosemary Shaw as its first executive director.

“By starting with a focus on organizational capacity, broad community engagement, and partnerships across different sector, Colville Together has emerged as a standard of quality and cooperation,” said Breanne Durham, Washington Main Street Director.

In the wake of Covid-19, Colville Together has put much of its effort toward Colville’s small business community by galvanizing a community eager to support them. Shortly after the shutdowns, Colville Together organized a crowdfunding campaign that raised $4,500 to help small businesses stay viable. The Main Street organization has also secured grants from Locable and a regional foundation called Innovia, which will allow them to provide ongoing support to Colville businesses through a state-of-the-art e-commerce site.

As Shaw, who still serves as Colville Together Executive Director, puts it, “Working together makes any goal achievable!”

The Excellence on Main Awards, organized by the Washington State Main Street Program, recognize communities, organizations, and individuals who are helping to achieve economic vitality and build sustainable communities through downtown revitalization and preservation. Washington’s Main Street Program is housed in the Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation and administered, under contract, by the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation.

The Organizational Excellence award is designed to recognize excellence in the areas related to building a strong downtown revitalization organization while achieving consensus and cooperation among stakeholder groups

For more information, please contact Breanne Durham, Washington Main Street Director, at the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation at bdurham@preservewa.org or 206-624-9449.

Local Contact: Rosemary Shaw, Colville Together, at 509-680-2841 or info@colvilletogether.org

Colville Together, in partnership with the Colville Chamber of Commerce, Northeast Washington Association of Realtors, the Rotary Club of Colville, is hosting Downtown Clean Up day on June 13^th.   Join us getting downtown ready for the summer activities and visitors. 

Our organizations and volunteers will be working to clean up garbage, wash store front windows, stain the downtown benches, sweeping sidewalks, and other various chores to help the heart of Colville look its best.  If you would like to participate please join us at Heritage Court on Saturday at 9 am, bring your broom and work gloves.  Check in at the booth to fill out our volunteer form, get your work assignment, and be entered to win a “This Place Matters” T-shirt. We will provide refreshments and many of the supplies at the booth as well.  We will be practicing social distancing and we encourage everyone to bring your facemasks.  Please download and fill out the volunteer form to save yourself some time on Saturday.

Colville Together, in partnership with the Colville Chamber of Commerce, has completed our GoFundMe campaign Downtown Businesses Fund.  We are thrilled to see the support of the community and the interest of the Downtown Businesses.

The Community has rallied around this project and we have had dozens of donations from community members, many of them being over $50 and a handful over $200.  We raised over $4,500 to aid the downtown Colville businesses that have been so impacted by the Stay at Home Order and COVID-19.  We had 9 eligible businesses, and each will be getting $500. The businesses may use these funds in any way to help them to continue to be viable during this time.  These businesses are vital to our community and crucial to keeping downtown a dynamic place, where our community and its visitors can live, work and play. 

Yesterday, June 2nd, Muriel Meyer the president of Colville Together personally delivered the checks to a handful of the eligible downtown business owners. The remaining checks were mailed out to the other eligible applicants.

This project really shows how we can make a positive impact TODAY, by working TOGETHER, we can help our downtown survive until TOMORROW. 

Colville Together, “Today, Tomorrow, Together.”   

Colville Together has been pleased to be a part of the design and discussions for the redesign and updating of Heritage Court over the past several years. We have been working with the steering committee established by the City of Colville. The steering committee included Chamber of Commerce, downtown business owners, and other interested community members. It has been a labor of love for all of us.

We didn’t know when the project would be able to start construction, or if it would ever happen because funding the project was difficult for the City, and there were no grants available for this kind of project. Mayor Ralph Lane, came up with a very creative solution, that not only allowed for the updating of Heritage Court, but also solved an issue that many of the downtown buildings along the south end of Main Street.

The water and sewer lines are undersized and do not allow for today’s requirement if any of the building owners want to remodel. So the Mayor proposed adding a new water and sewer line to the alley of Main Street in the large parking lot behind heritage Court. To do this a very large hole will be created in Heritage Court to get the lines deep enough and back to the alley from the existing main lines. After the new water and sewer lines at installed, Heritage Court will be put back together. The design includes new lighting, new seating areas and a great open space for people to gather.

Please see the link above for further information about the schedule for the project, and the affected areas of downtown and Main Street. This project will cause a bit of inconvenience for a short period of time, but the long term result will be worth it.

Colville Together, the Colville Chamber of Commerce, the Kettle Falls Area Chamber of Commerce & Downtown Association and the Statesman Examiner are collaborating for Colville & Kettle Falls Restaurant Bingo! 

 Spend $20 or more at the participating local restaurants to receive a stamp on your bingo card. Bingo cards will be available in the Statesman Newspaper, at colvilletogether.org or at the Colville Chamber of Commerce office. When you have completed 5 tiles in a row  for a bingo or all the squares for black out bingo, return your stamped card to Colville Chamber of Commerce at 986 S. Main Street Suite B or scan and email to info@colvilletogether.org by October 31st to be entered to win the drawing. 

The participating restaurants have all provided gift cards as part of the prizes. Enter to win 1 of 7 prizes for a $100 in gift certificates from participating restaurants for bingo, or 1 prize for $500 in gift certificates for blackout!  Incomplete tiles or cards will not be considered. Must be 18 over to enter.

Join us in supporting our local restaurants by eating in, carrying out and getting delivery from the local restaurants and ensure that they are a part of our community for many years to come!

Print you bingo card at https://www.colvilletogether.org/colville-kettle-falls-restaurant-bingo/

Colville Together has just received formal notice from Washington State Main Street that we have earned our designation as a Main Street Community for 2020.  Colville Together has been a Main Street Affiliate since 2017 and has been working hard the past few years to become a Main Street Community.  According to preservewa.org, “Washington Main Street helps communities revitalize the economy, appearance, and image of their downtown districts using the successful Main Street Approach®, a comprehensive revitalization strategy built around a community’s unique heritage and attributes.”

Colville Together is so excited as this designation provides opportunities that were not available to us as an Affiliate.  We are now going to be able to keep monies working locally that would otherwise go directly to the state.  The Main Street Tax Credit Incentive Program allows local businesses to take advantage of a 75% tax credit for B&O Taxes.  For example, if a local business donates $1,000 to Colville Together, they will receive a $750 tax credit for the following year.   The donations to Colville Together will be used for our programs which include façade grants, a building improvement matching grant program and downtown murals.  These programs are focused on improving the look of downtown Colville, which will encourage visitors, as well as our community, to spend time shopping and enjoying downtown.

Colville Together would not be possible without the help of our partners; the City of Colville, Colville Chamber of Commerce, and Tri County Economic Development District. Thank you for your time, financial support and encouragement over the past few years.