Kennett Chamber hosts downtown renovation forum

Business Today

KENNETT -- The Chamber of Commerce presented plans to replace sidewalks, lamp posts and awnings to a crowd of downtown merchants, city officials and Kennett residents at a Sept. 2 downtown renovation meeting.

"I believe this is going to be our last chance to renovate downtown," said Keith Mitchell, downtown merchant. "We need to have merchants, council members and the community care about this project or else it's not going to get done."

The Chamber will be applying for a community block grant that has to be used in a public use area. The maximum amount the city could receive is $400,000.

"This is a great opportunity to go back to the traditional downtown look," said Jan McElwrath, executive director of the Chamber of Commerce.

Jeff Cupples of Cupples Sign Design was at the meeting to discuss the possibility of the replacement of awnings above the storefronts in downtown. Cupples recently helped with the downtown renovation of Paragould and Caruthersville by replacing their storefront awnings.

"Awnings not only dress up the building but you will get more customers," said Cupples. "Paragould did it and each one of their downtown businesses got a 20 percent increase."

McElwath told the crowd that the grant would cover the replacement of the awnings but individual merchants would have to replace their own. She told the group that the Chamber wants to know how it can help the merchants become successful.

Mitchell made reference to an article in the Daily Dunklin Democrat from July 9, 1986, which said that Kennett wanted to renovate the downtown area to have the best one around.

"It didn't happen then and we're still fighting this battle," said Mitchell. "People have outgrown downtowns, but we have to a create a need for a downtown."