Downtown Poplar Bluff director resigns, board vows to carry out revitalization
By Tim Krakowiak, Managing Editor
The future of the downtown revitalization effort is presently up in the air, despite the fact that the strategic plan of the DREAM initiative is just about ready for the city to adopt.
Tracy Frish
Tracy Frish, Downtown Poplar Bluff Inc. executive director for the last two years, has turned in her resignation effective Feb. 1, a month after Poplar Bluff City Council approved covering her salary for another two years or until the position becomes self-sufficient.
The DPB board plans to fill the post as seamlessly as possible. “It’s a huge job,” said chairwoman Emily Wolpers, “but we’re all committed to keep moving ahead.”
Downtown leaders commended Frish for helping to establish the bylaws, logo and website for the nonprofit organization, realizing past efforts in the historic district, starting an annual fundraiser and creating a DPB database.
“Hopefully, the next two years will be even more productive than the first two years and we will see marked improvements in funding opportunities for DPB,” City Manager Doug Bagby said. “Tracy Frish has developed a base that the new director will be able to rely and expand on to ideally make this organization an example of what can be accomplished when everyone is pulling in the same direction.”
One of 39 communities designated up until 2010, Poplar Bluff entered the Downtown Revitalization and Economic Assistance for Missouri program three years ago, which provides access to technical and financial assistance from several state agencies to attract new private investments and jobs in the downtown area.
As part of the state’s pledge under former Gov. Matt Blunt, PGAV Planners were hired in 2008 to analyze the housing and retail market downtown and come up with a streetscape and buildings plan for downtown officials to work toward achieving. The resulting studies, which can be viewed at www.modream.org, are currently under review by the DPB board and a public hearing will be posted soon so the master plan can go before city council for approval, according to Mike Hemmer, PGAV Planners associate director based in St. Louis.
“Revenue sources are the key to survival of DPB, and it is at least my opinion that property owners are going to have to understand that or simply watch property values in our downtown area continue to decline,” said Bagby, adding that the 11-person overseeing board deserves praise for their commitment thus far. “They are truly interested in the history of our downtown area and committed to seeing it survive in an era that isn’t particularly kind to downtowns in cities of our size.”
A St. Louis native who moved to Poplar Bluff with her family as a young girl, Frish took the DPB reins at the start of 2010, after the city secured $100,000 through the community development block grant program under the Missouri Department of Economic Development to fund the leadership position. As part of the agreement, the city committed to match the salary and benefits up until 2014.
“I do think it’s important to have someone take the lead,” said Beverly Roach, who has operated McNeely Shoe Service on Vine Street with her husband Bennie since 1987. She suggested the downtown community begin meeting monthly during non-business hours.
PROGRESS
One of the first projects Frish took on was rehabilitating the 1910 Poplar Bluff Train Depot with $600,000 previously secured by Butler County officials through the Missouri Department of Transportation, the CDBG program and Amtrak.
“For 30 years, small groups with good intentions but no money have been trying to work on improving downtown, making progress, but everyone has a day job,” Frish said. “There are many unsung heroes in the community who offered little pieces of expertise—labors of love really—and the (executive director) job is to somehow bring it all together.”
Frish also landed a $1,500 grant for the historically endangered depot steps from the National Trust for Historic Preservation to cover half the cost of an engineering study for a restoration plan. The Poplar Bluff Historic Depot Restoration Corporation has agreed to fundraise to complete the project.
The year Frish returned to Poplar Bluff was the centennial of the train depot, and Frish spearheaded the Iron Horse Festival downtown, intended to become the chief annual fundraiser to sustain a budget for DPB.
As an aside, Frish collaborated with the Wheatley Historic Preservation Association to obtain a $50,000 grant from the Lowe’s Charitable and Educational Foundation Preservation Fund to restore the exterior of the old school building on Garfield Street.
Smaller projects happened on Frish’ watch such as the Adopt-a-Pot program through which downtown entities are encouraged to purchase pots, benches and trash bins to beautify the area.
Recently Frish and her board have made progress toward getting the codes changed in the downtown district so buildings can be utilzed for mixed use, with both retail and apartment space. Upon final approval from the Poplar Bluff Planning and Zoning Commission, city council is expected to approve the new ordinance.
“Any improvements we make, we are bettering the community as a whole, even the region,” Frish said.
Wolpers, also the chairwoman of the Poplar Bluff Historical Preservation Commission, explained that Missouri is a model state for offering state and federal tax credits to businesses restoring buildings to the original façade, such as when Hays Music relocated to 401 Vine St., a building that dates back to the late 19th Century.
In 2009, MACO Development Company received tax credits for constructing the $9 million senior housing unit, the Vine Street Apartments, in three historic buildings between Fifth and Morgan streets.
“We’re another group hoping Missouri doesn’t cut out tax credits because that’s the impetus of going in and restoring things,” Wolpers stated.
Serving on DPB’s promotion and events committee, Rose Anne Huck said she has lived in two Missouri communities with fewer assets than Poplar Bluff, Hannibal and Marshall, which have executed DREAM programs lucratively.
“I left Poplar Bluff for college in 1971 when downtown was still doing fine, and over the years I came back to visit family and watched it slide for one reason or another, because of barriers that needed to be fixed,” said Huck, who returned home in recent years to open a Poole Advertising branch. “It’s on my bucket list to not let it slide further, because if you don’t have a healthy heart, you’re not going to be in a good position for the future, and downtown is the heart of Poplar Bluff.”
Tim Krakowiak can be contacted by emailing tim@semotimes, or follow him on Twitter @TimKrakowiak.
