Revitalizing Downtown Lakeland

April 05, 2008 07:10 pm

— LAKELAND — Katie Mosier’s face lights up when she starts talking about downtown.
“There are a lot of changes coming. This is an exciting time,” Mosier says, standing on the sidewalk in front of her new employer — the Lakeland-Lanier County Chamber of Commerce.
Mosier left her job at Louis Smith Hospital to take on a challenge from new Chamber President Bill Wilson to help rally business owners and residents behind the common goal of revitalizing downtown Lakeland.
Mosier is the Chamber’s administrative assistant, but speaks with the temperature and pace of a public relations zealot bent on lobbying a cause through Congress.
She’s fired up about Wilson’s challenge to restore lost Chamber membership.
“Three years ago, we had approximately 164 members in the Chamber,” Mosier said. “We want to get it back to that. We have 72 Chamber members today, but we have 185 licensed businesses in Lanier County. We have our work cut out for us. But we’ll do it. In just the first week of April, we’ve added two new members.”
Growing Chamber membership is a key part of uniting the community behind the common goals of growing local commerce and reviving downtown, Wilson noted.
“But we have to convince people how membership in the Chamber benefits you,” he said. “We are working hard to improve those benefits.”
The Chamber has started a quarterly breakfast for members, offers the “Fast Forward” Chamber newsletter, is cranking up Business After Hours events and more.
Mosier and Wilson were joined Thursday by fellow Chamber officials Jason Shaw, who chairs the Chamber’s Tourism Committee, and Wendy Moore, secretary-treasurer of the Chamber and director of Leadership Lanier, for a walking tour of downtown.
Also joining them were Lakeland Mayor Bill Darsey, city Police Chief Robbie Grantham, and longtime resident and local author-historian Nell Patten Roquemore.
The enthusiasm and love for this downtown and hometown shone from these individuals like rays from the sun.
Although economic times are tough and downtown business has been on the wane of recent, these key leaders only offered hope, faith and confidence that a better day will come if they can convince others to work hard for common goals.
As Mosier stated early on, changes, indeed, are coming downtown.
The mayor pointed to a set of blueprints for a major $400,000 downtown streetscape project that’s been approved by the Georgia Department of Transportation, but is among projects frozen for funding until the DOT’s new director gets a handle on statewide project priorities.
“The project was approved two years ago, so it is a little disappointing to get so close to starting it, only to have it delayed,” Darsey said.
The streetscape, Darsey noted, will make downtown on Main Street much more attractive, adding brick pavers, benches, lamps, landscaping, and will make the entire downtown handicap accessible.
“We hope the DOT will free up the money soon so we can finish the bidding process on the project and get it started,” Darsey said.
Meanwhile, Darsey and Wilson noted several other efforts. The Oaklawn Foundation, led by Roquemore, is renovating two old downtown buildings. One is located near City Hall, across the street from the Chamber’s current offices near the intersection of Hwy. 122 and Main Street (Thigpen Avenue).
Once finished, the building will be the Chamber’s new office. It will also provide the city a Welcome Center for visitors and potential new residents, and will have a small meeting room for various organizations to use.
Also, the city is negotiating with the owner of an old dilapidated building at the corner of 122 and Main Street to purchase the building and remove it. The property would be redeveloped for public use, the mayor said.
“That intersection needs to be widened so traffic doesn’t back up there so bad,” Darsey said.
The mayor also said city officials are negotiating to buy land for building a new City Hall downtown, and building a Public Works and Maintenance building.
The Chamber has an ongoing campaign “Shop Lakeland First,” aimed at getting more folks to shop downtown and to promote commerce in the city that also generates sales tax revenues that are invested right back into the community.
Each month, the Chamber has promoted late night downtown shopping events in which merchants are asked to keep their doors open from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The next late night shopping event is slated for Friday, April 11. The band Eye’s East from Southside Baptist Church will entertain.
Another event — Milltown Motorcade and Parade — is scheduled for 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, April 26, and features vintage autos made in the 1920s and folks dressed in period clothing.
Such events are important for attracting visitors from surrounding counties, Shaw said.
“Our goal is to become one of the stopping points when people travel through this area,” Shaw said. “Maybe they’ll spend some money here. We could wind up being more of an overnight location if we get the infrastructure in place.”
Mosier borrowed some marketing used by the Army of recent.
“We want Lakeland to be a community of one,” Mosier said. “Places like this need to be preserved, and preservation costs money. So we have to convince folks that investing in their own community helps everyone to help themselves, because everyone benefits.”
The new Chamber president, too, had a firm tone of commitment when noting the organization’s goals for 2008.
“This is a whole new revamp,” Wilson said. “We are really trying to get this going. It’s a whole new approach.”
For more information on Chamber membership, call 229-482-9755 or visit the Chamber’s Web site, www.lakelandlanierchamber.com.

Photos

Paul Leavy/The Valdosta Daily Times