HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – Since Havre was approved as a Main Street Montana Affiliate Community back in March, progress on revitalizing downtown has been slowed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bear Paw Development Executive Director Paul Tuss says that his organization, along with the Havre-Area Chamber of Commerce and local downtown revitalization group Downtown Havre Matters!, are still working to secure the funds to create a master plan.
“To be honest with you, there’s been a lot of slowdown in processes since COVID-19 hit. We’re very, very happy that Havre is now part of Main Street Montana program , which allows us to open the door for additional funding for things like a master plan to envision what downtown Havre could really look like… Obviously there will be public input and public meetings and we want to solicit as much of that as possible, and we’ll be doing that later on. But right now we’re just making sure that we have the money to put together the master plan, and we’re pursuing those avenues currently.”
Tuss says Havre is in communication with the Department of Commerce to obtain the funding necessary to create a master plan.
Tuss said he’s still hopeful that the master plan will be completed by the end of the calendar year.
“That would probably be fairly aggressive, but it may be doable. And certainly if we don’t hit December of this year, it will potentially sneak into the first quarter of 2021.”
Main Street Montana is a state government program that allows communities to be eligible to receive certain grants to help revitalize downtown areas.
