Main Street Alabama visited Luverne recently, providing feedback on current and future downtown revitalization and improvement efforts.

The city is a network community of the non-profit organization that works with communities across Alabama on downtown revitalization efforts. The organization’s visit near the end of February, resulted in a report on downtown Luverne’s strengths and weaknesses and also offered feedback on the city’s downtown revitalization goals. 

“We are happy to visit the community annually to provide a presentation on Main Street Alabama, but [during] this visit, we instead sat down and had an in-depth discussion about Luverne’s potential challenges and long-term goals,” said Main Street Program Development Specialist Mariah Montgomery. 

The report is based on an interview between Montgomery, councilwoman and business owner Kathy Smyth and Crenshaw County Economic and Industrial Development Authority Robyn Snellgrove. The report serves as a snapshot of the community’s downtown revitalization efforts and offers specific suggestions for future improvements. 

Some of the city’s strengths mentioned by Montgomery include lighting across the street downtown, the historic clock and the city’s maintenance of the downtown area, among others. 

Some of the projects Luverne will be working on in the future include filling the empty buildings downtown, façade improvements – renovating or enhancing a building’s exterior – and continuing to market the city regionally, among other projects. 

“[The report] is used as a guide for us in looking at what projects we should perhaps prioritize,” Smyth said. “They never come in telling us what to do or how to do it; it is a guideline [with] suggestions from people that do this professionally in many small towns across Alabama – not just small towns but other areas [like] larger urban areas… That [feedback] is helpful for us to narrow some goals and look at short-term and long term goals for the city.”

The report will serve as a point of reference, Smyth said, allowing Main Street Alabama to track Luverne’s progress over the next year and assess the impact of current and future efforts so the organization can offer informed suggestions for continuing improvements.

After her visit, Montgomery said that she enjoyed her time in Luverne.  

“Every downtown business owner or staff member I interacted with was incredibly friendly,” Montgomery said. “It’s clear that Luverne has a strong sense of community. I’m excited to be working with Luverne and look forward to seeing the progress made in the future.”