Lighting up Polson's downtown

POLSON — Polson’s snazzy new Main Street was cause for celebration Friday during the “Celebrate Our City Center, Light up the Town” event.

In addition to family-fun events like a sidewalk-chalk coloring contest and the infamous horse race, local musicians entertained crowds through the evening, and vendors provided food and drinks for all to enjoy.

The celebration was actually a fundraiser aimed at collecting the last few dollars needed to finish the sidewalks and landscaping along the newly renovated Main Street.

Organizers from the Polson Street Scape Fundraising Committee sold personalized bricks, called “pavers,” for $35 apiece, which will be used to fill in two of the four bump-outs at each intersection. The remaining two corners are being sold to businesses or individuals for personal landscaping.

Karen McMullen, committee member, said the push to revitalize the Polson downtown has been a long, but steady effort.

The biggest push, she said came in 2007 when the city became part of the Main Street National Trust for Historic Preservation program. Several of the group’s leaders were trained by experts from the trust on ways to better market the downtown as an asset to the community and raise funds for community beautification projects.

“This is the manifestation of 30 years of conversation,” McMullen said. “Many different groups have tried and tried to get a beautification project going because they saw Main Street as the roots of our town and knew that enhancing the roots of our town is an important thing.”

While the attitude surrounding the street scape project has been, at times, contentious, on Friday, everyone seemed to be in good spirits.

“It’s been really hard with the economic downturn,” McMullen said. “But we did it, and in the long run, it should be better.”