MARSHALL – Downtown Marshall businesses met earlier this month and mutually agreed that December plans to have some businesses reopen as early as the first week of April were “aggressive.”
At the Madison County Board of Commissioners meeting Jan. 14, Downtown Marshall Association’s Connie Molland, who owns Flow Gallery in downtown Marshall, said downtown Marshall business owners met recently and decided that a May reopening would be more realistic.
But even a May reopening for some businesses could be too aggressive, Molland said, adding that she didn’t want to declare a set-in-stone reopening date.
“I want to make sure that the greater community hears that we’re still hurting,” Molland said. “I still get asked on a regular basis, ‘So how’s your shop?’ And in downtown Marshall there are several businesses and buildings that aren’t going to be open for many, many more months. It’s going to not be as fast as we had liked.”
Molland said downtown business owners met the week of Jan. 6 and decided the April 4-6 opening target date was “too aggressive.”
“We don’t want to have an event where we invite people and they come in and see boarded up buildings and half the businesses not reopened,” Molland said. “So, we’re going to move that forward into maybe May. I’m not going to make any promises right now because it really does depend on some of the things that need to be rebuilt.”
According to Molland, one particular downtown Marshall business received a roughly $20,000 grant, but added that most downtown Marshall businesses have not received grant funding.
“So, please keep us in your mind,” Molland said. “Please keep looking for ways to help us, because we are wanting to reopen. We’re wanting to be successful.”
Downtown historic districts
The county held its public hearing on the proposal Jan. 14, and the board unanimously approved allocating the $100,000 recommended by the county economic development board for establishing the Madison County Historic Grant Preservation Program through Article 44 funds.
Development Services Director Brad Guth provided an update to the board on the Madison County Economic Development Board’s recommendation to establish a matching grant program to assist owners of historic buildings and rebuilding after Helene’s devastation in both downtown Hot Springs and downtown Marshall.
Funding will come from Article 44 sales tax revenues designed for local economic development, and the Madison County Economic Development Board recommended the county spend $100,000 on these grant programs.
When the program was discussed in the December commission meeting, it was believed that the program would hold a maximum of $5,000 in owner- or tenant-matching funds for eligible facades and building rehabilitation projects within downtown Hot Springs and downtown Marshall’s National Register of Historic Places districts.
According to Guth, there are 40 businesses in downtown Marshall that would qualify for the grant funding, and 14 businesses in Hot Springs.
Guth said the county staff spoke with Mountain Bizworks about the potential of increasing the $5,000 cap.
With the $5,000 cap, commissioners wondered whether all eligible businesses would be compensated, as the $100,000 would be available on a first come, first serve basis.
According to Guth, county staff has spoken with Mountain Bizworks to administer the program. Guth said Mountain Bizworks has also agreed to bring a $400,000 match to the program.
“So, we’ll have a total of $500,000 to administer for this particular grant program now,” Guth said.
Economic Development Board Director Forrest Gilliam said Mountain Bizworks could potentially raise additional money to be used in the county.
Gilliam also said the economic development board’s initial recommendation in its December meeting came before the board was made aware of the additional $400,000 funding from Mountain Bizworks.
Additionally, Gilliam, who also serves as Marshall town administrator, said the town received money from the Madison County Tourism Development Authority that it wasn’t expecting to receive.
According to Board of Commissioners Chair Matt Wechtel, the Article 44 money is reserved specifically for economic development, while the Mountain Bizworks pool of money will be subject to Mountain Bizworks’ guidelines.
Business owners’ reactions
Molland said she was in favor of streamlining the grant application process, as other grant application processes in the past were “onerous.”
“So, I hope that through the process it’ll be easy so we can focus on reopening our businesses and doing what needs to happen, and be thinking about making it as simple as possible for us to answer the questions that are necessary, but not over the top,” Molland said. “I think it’s wonderful to hear that there are opportunities that are coming up. Keep them coming, because we need it.”
In the public comment section of the public hearing, Rick Molland said he hoped to emphasize that there’s a difference between a business operation and its residential building.
“So, if we’re doing a rehabbing of the building, that goes to the building owner, typically,” Rick Molland said, “However, the businesses still need support as well. So I hope any grant programs that are put together recognize that there are businesses which don’t own buildings, they just rent them, but will need help.”
Rhesa Edwards and her husband own the building at 45 N. Main St., which houses Mad Co. Brew House and Pizza Kitchen.
Edwards said her building is not on the list of businesses listed on the historic district.
“So, I think my main question is, is this going to go to every building owner downtown, or just those historic sites? I know a lot of the historic buildings are completely gone. I don’t know if they get the money to rebuild. I don’t know if they’re able to rebuild.
“I think my biggest question is, will I have a shot at getting some of this money to help rebuild my building?”
Board discussion
Wechtel addressed Edwards’ question and said the Madison County Historic Grant Preservation Program funding would go only to businesses within the historic district, and money would be distributed to the building owners.
“The Mountain Bizworks would not necessarily have those restrictions,” Wechtel said. “If additional pots of money come to fruition, whoever funds those would have the ability to open that up.”
The county development services director said the county hoped to use Mountain Bizworks to determine additional funding sources for businesses like Edwards’ that are not within the historic districts.
“Essentially, what we would like to see happen is that property owners or business owners provide basically the receipts that they’ve purchased, or whatever work that they’ve done, and then Mountain Bizworks would go through those and say, ‘This is eligible for this program,’ and they would track all that for us.”
But board members, including Vice Chair Jeremy Hensley and Michael Garrison, said they were concerned about the “first come, first serve” policy for the grant funding, and wondered whether it would be more practical to issue smaller grants to allow every potential business to receive compensation.
More:Madison business owners, county government exploring options to fund rebuilding
More:Number of downtown Marshall businesses aim for April 4-6 reopening after Helene
The board chair said he favored the $5,000 match, as it would be more impactful to the business owners who get it.
“I mean, $5,000 is a drop in the bucket to these businesses, considering what they’ve lost,” Wechtel said. “If the demands exceed expectations, we have the opportunity to take a second bite of the apple, and try to help those businesses as well.”
Garrison said the problem with that scenario is that the funding would only allow for the first 20 qualifying businesses to receive compensation.
“The first 20 that qualify. It’s kind of that way for everything. Not everybody that applies for college gets in,” Wechtel said.
Garrison said he felt the county needed to do something, and it needed to do it now, but urged the county to be intentional in laying out the parameters for the distribution of funds.
“I have a problem with limiting it to the first 20,” Garrison said, advocating for the county to set a timeline and advocate for equitable distribution of funds to eligible property owners.
But the commission felt it would be prudent to direct the economic development board to revise its recommendation after restructuring the parameters for the $500,000 in funding.
“There is a division of opinion, obviously, and I added my mind as well, over helping more people or having larger amounts,” Gilliam said in his comments to the board wherein he sought input and recommendations from the Board of Commissioners to bring to the economic development board for framing its parameters.
With assistance from board attorney Donny Laws, the commission ultimately agreed to adopt the goals set forth in the Madison County Historic Grant Preservation Program “with modifications to the program to be addressed by the economic development board, and delegate the board to make those modifications to the program.”
Wechtel recommended the Board of Commissioners provide their recommendations to bring to both Guth and Garrison, who is a member of the economic development board.
“Then, Commissioner Garrison and Brad can address each and every one of your individual concerns with the economic development board, and the economic development board can decide how best to proceed and make their recommendations back to this board,” Wechtel said.
Johnny Casey covers Madison County for The Citizen Times and The News-Record & Sentinel. He can be reached at 828-210-6074 or [email protected].
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