CLEARFIELD – The Clearfield Revitalization Corp. (CRC) has been designated as an accredited Main Street America™ program for meeting rigorous performance standards set by the National Main Street Center.
Each year, the National Main Street Center and its partners announce the list of accredited Main Street America programs to recognize their exemplary commitment to preservation-based economic development and community revitalization through the Main Street Approach™.
“We are proud to acknowledge this year’s 840 nationally-accredited Main Street America programs that have worked tirelessly to strengthen their communities,” said Patrice Frey, president and chief executive officer of the National Main Street Center.
“These programs deserve recognition for generating impressive economic returns, preserving community character and celebrating local history.
“Main Street America-accredited communities are part of a powerful movement of changemakers, and their dedication to improving quality of life in the places they call home is inspiring.”
In 2018 alone, Main Street America programs generated $4.93 billion in local reinvestment, helped open 5,310 net new businesses, generated 25,301 net new jobs, catalyzed the rehabilitation of 8,146historic buildings and clocked 2.2 million volunteer hours.
The CRC’s performance is annually evaluated by the Pennsylvania Downtown Center, which works in partnership with the National Main Street Center to identify the local programs that meet ten national performance standards.
Evaluation criteria determines the communities that are building comprehensive and sustainable revitalization efforts and include standards such as fostering strong public-private partnerships, documenting programmatic progress and actively preserving historic buildings.
Since its inception, the CRC has generated over $1,047,152 of public and private investment from the Facade Improvement Program, hosted 20 successful events to promote local business and downtown Clearfield and secured grant funding for new trees, streetscape items, American flags and banners for downtown.
The CRC has recorded over 30,000 adult volunteer hours from community members and over 900 hours from student volunteers. In the past four years, the CRC has also had a Youth Council to keep students engaged in the community.
The CRC has received National Accreditation for eight straight years and has also won a Pennsylvania State Townie Award for the CRC Facade Improvement Grant Program.
It will be awarded in June of 2019 with another Pennsylvania State Townie Award for its Youth Involvement Program for the Murals, Scarecrows and Holiday Window Painting in the downtown.
In addition, the CRC is proud to introduce its most recent project the “Clearfield Salutes Banners Program” for downtown Clearfield.
“Your partnerships, sponsorships and volunteerism are making it happen,” expressed CRC Main Street Manager Loretta Wagner. “Thank you, Clearfield for your passion to keep improving our town.”
About Main Street America
Main Street America has been helping revitalize older and historic commercial districts for more than 35 years. Today, it is a network of more than 1,600 neighborhoods and communities, rural and urban, who share both a commitment to place and to building stronger communities through preservation-based economic development.
Since 1980, communities participating in the program have leveraged more than $79.12 billion in new public and private investment, generated 640,017 net new jobs and 143,613 net new businesses, and rehabilitated more than 284,936 buildings.
Main Street America is a program of the non-profit National Main Street Center, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.