The West Jefferson Community Partnership and West Jefferson Small Towns Main Street Program held a joint planning meeting this past Friday morning at the Ashe County Arts Council.

Overall, the focus of the combined meeting was to discuss the possibility of allowing both groups to meet together to discuss reports and information on how to revitalize downtown West Jefferson while preserving the community’s cultural and historical integrity but still work as separate subcommittees on various projects. This would allow both entities to combine powers and resources to work toward a common goal while at the same time maintaining each group’s respective identity.

Lew Holloway from the North Carolina Division of Community Assistance emphasized the overall goal of Friday morning’s meeting.

“Essentially we came here to answer the question of how the West Jefferson Community Partnership and Small Towns Main Street Program could work together. Basically, these are two separate groups and we’re looking to combine them,” Holloway said. “Also, we are looking at ways to energize and coordinate the efforts of the two groups.”

Holloway went on to explain the focus of combining the groups by concentrating on a three-point program. That particular program includes marketing, economic restructuring, which incorporates promotions in marketing, and design.

Of the various topics and goals on Friday’s agenda, one of the more pressing matters was the initiation of the planning and application process to move the town of West Jefferson towards participation in the N.C. Main Street Program. Facilitator Kristy Carter from the N.C. Division of Community Assistance stressed how this responsibility fell into the laps of the WJCP and the Town of West Jefferson to do so by 2009.

Also, issues of design were on the docket to discuss possible guidelines on how to guide new businesses and the renovations of existing structures in a way that is agreeable with the historic nature of the community.

According to the N.C. Department of Commerce, the Small Towns Main Street Program works toward the revitalization of small town business districts while preserving the historic fabric of a community. STMS provides direction for communities with a population under 7,500 and do not have a full-time town manager at their disposal.

Director Jane Lonon, from the Ashe County Arts Council, provided her insights on the possible convergence of the two groups.

“I think overall the combined forces of WJCP and STMS will facilitate better success for the mission and goals of the two organizations.” Lonon said. “This is an important step because what benefits West Jefferson will also benefit Ashe County.”

In other business, Carter announced that the zip code surveys had been collected and processors had begun “compiling the collected data.”

The surveys were conducted in coordination with the West Jefferson Business Association Steering Committee and were issued in an attempt to allow local businesses to discover where their out-of-town patrons were coming from and enable those businesses to plan market strategies.

Both Holloway and Carter also explained how the market surveys needed to be revisited as some work needed to be done on those.

After nearly two hours of discussion, clear areas of overlap between the WJCP and STMS were outlined. Both groups remain dedicated to preserving the historical look of the downtown area and see economic development as a secondary benefit in the revitalization of West Jefferson. Despite sharing some common ground, distinct differences remained between both planning organizations. Both groups deal with the same problems in planning and share common goals, but the two organizations have different priority lists in transforming the down town area.

A summary of Friday’s discussion will be compiled by the Division of Community Assistance and should be available in the near future. A future planning meeting will be held at Ashe County Arts Council on Friday, Sept.26 at 8 a.m.