Pavilion and Riverfront plans to be unveiled in Mainstreet meeting

Libby Mayor Tony Berget and the Libby City Council will present their plans for the Fred Brown Pavilion, Riverfront Park and Mineral Avenue as part of a series of presentations about Main Street Revitalization on April 8.

Todd Barman, program officer for the National Trust Main Street Center, will be speaking in the first of two meetings at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday in the Little Theatre at 724 Louisiana Avenue.

The National Trust Main Street Center applies a Main Street approach to commercial district revitalization, combining historic preservation with economic development while restoring downtowns and neighborhood business districts.

Trent Oelberg, director of Libby Mainstreet, said Libby was one of the first Montana towns to join the national organization, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation which has 40 statewide, citywide, and countywide Main Street programs and more than 1,200 active Main Street programs nationally.

Barman will address the Libby business owners, the city of Libby, and the general public on the top 10 reasons why downtown is important to our community. He will also speak on why municipalities should support downtown.

The second meeting will be at 8 a.m. on Wednesday, April 9 at the Libby Café. Barman will address the Libby Merchants on “Main Street Tourism Development.”

Barman joined the National Trust Main Street Center with 10 years of Main Street experience. His emphasis at the center is in the area of economic restructuring including research, entrepreneurship and market positioning.

He served as the assistant state coordinator for the Wisconsin Main Street Program where he provided comprehensive technical assistance in the field of downtown revitalization to Wisconsin's Main Street communities.

He holds both masters and bachelors degrees in landscape architecture from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.