Free soup at 6; bring your vision for Chariton along

I hauled out this poorly exposed photo (what was I doing?) taken almost exactly three years ago at the Freight House to mark the fact Chariton has been a partner in the Main Street Iowa program for three years now --- and to invite everyone to a "come-and-go-at-will" meeting from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. today, also at the Freight House.

Doors will open at 5 p.m., the Chariton Historic Preservation Commission will serve a free soup supper beginning at 6 p.m. and the discussion will continue until 8 p.m. --- the hardiest are welcome to stay for the whole event; others may come and go at will. But don't miss the soup. Facilitator will be Terry Poe Buschkamp, of the Main Street Iowa Staff.

That meeting during March of 2012 was to celebrate Chariton's admission to the Main Street Iowa program, to introduce it to the community and to encourage everyone who attended to  "vision" together about our city's needs and hopes and dreams as a plan for Chariton Area Chamber/Main Street's first three years of work was developed.

Those three years have passed and now it's time to review --- and to plan for the next three years. So everyone who attends will be given opportunity to address their concerns about their community --- especially the downtown Main Street District, now listed as an Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places after a joint Chamber/Main Street-city-Preservation Commission effort.

So please stop in to help us celebrate our successes, lick our wounds about projects that never quite got off the ground and --- most importantly --- tell us about what you'd like to see happen during the next three years.

Main Street Iowa is a division of the Iowa Economic Development Authority and part of the nationwide Main Street Program, developed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation to facilitate incremental progress in smaller cities with preservation of historic assets a key strategy. Chariton's Main Street District encompasses the square and approximately a block in all directions. Chariton Area Chamber/Main Street works to meet the needs of the entire city, however --- and beyond.