2007 Downtown Achievement Awards

 

 

Awards will be announced during a ceremony on a date to be determined. Winners will be notified in advance.

 

PLEASE READ CAREFULLY AS AWARD CATEGORIES AND CRITERIA HAVE CHANGED SUBSTANTIALLY FROM PREVIOUS YEARS.

 

2007 Award Nomination Form

 

 

The Maine Downtown Center is seeking nominations for its 2007 Downtown Achievement Awards.  The deadline for submitting nominations is Friday, September 7^th at 4:00 pm.

 

• Nominations should be for projects completed from July 2006 through September 1^st, 2007.  All projects must be COMPLETED by the time of nomination submission.
• A volunteer panel of Maine Downtown Center Advisory Board members and other representatives from the downtown revitalization field serve as judges for the awards.  Judges reserve the right to not award in all categories, to award more than one award in each category, and to reassign nominations to other categories if deemed more appropriate.  Decisions of the judges are final.
• Nomination deadlines will be strictly enforced.
• We will only accept electronic submissions (burned on cd’s or emailed).  All materials become the property of the Maine Downtown Center and will not be returned.  Project photos are required. 
• Submissions should be emailed to kcady@mdf.org and copied to lmerrill@mdf.org.  Please confirm receipt of your email by calling 622-6345.  CD’s or other materials should be mailed to:

 

Kristen Cady

Maine Downtown Center

295 Water Street, Suite 5

Augusta ME 04330

 

• Awards will be announced during a ceremony on a date to be determined.  Winners will be notified in advance.

 

Please note that some awards are open to ALL Maine communities, and some are now limited to Main Street Maine communities.

 

 

 

The following awards are open to Main Street Maine communities ONLY (Saco, Biddeford, Norway, Bath, Gardiner, Waterville, Skowhegan, Eastport and Van Buren):

 

• Volunteer of the Year – Each designated Main Street Maine community will submit to MDC the name of their Volunteer of the Year to be recognized at the statewide awards ceremony.  Programs should select a special individual that has invested considerable personal time and energy to the local Main Street program.  This is open to any member of the community not currently serving on a local program board of directors. 

 

• Board Member of the Year – Each designated Main Street Maine community will submit to MDC the name of their Board Member of the Year to be recognized at the statewide awards ceremony.  Programs should select a board member who has served a minimum of one full year, who has committed significant time, energy and talent to the board.  This is open to current and outgoing board members.

 

• Outstanding Main Street Maine Community – Open to “mature” Main Street Maine communities (year 4+), this award recognizes the Main Street Maine program that best adheres to the principles of the Main Street approach and has achieved outstanding results.  Programs must demonstrate excellence through economic reinvestment statistics (for example, businesses retained/recruited); volunteer participation; broad based support from downtown stakeholders, residents and the town; stable budget/fundraising; and a commitment to historic preservation.  Nominees must be certified as a National Main Street community.  We will also consider factors such as the number of attendees at state and national conferences, and timeliness of reports submitted to MDC.  Once awarded, a community must sit out one year before re-applying. 

 

The following awards are open to ALL Maine communities:

 

Downtown Visionary – recognizes an individual, business or organization that champions downtown revitalization at the statewide or regional level.  There should be a demonstrated commitment to downtown revitalization beyond a local program.

 

Best Volunteer Recruitment/Recognition Effort – recognizes a downtown revitalization organization’s efforts to recruit, train and recognize volunteers for either the organization itself, or a specific event. We need to encourage and reward these efforts, because it is getting harder and harder to recruit volunteers. 

 

Outstanding Public/Private partnership – recognizes a project that demonstrates excellence in partnership between a public and private entity in a downtown. 

 

Outstanding Special or Retail Event – recognizes a single special event held in downtown that built traffic and benefited the downtown.  The event should be goal oriented, target an appropriate audience, and demonstrate creativity. 

 

Outstanding Window Display – recognizes an outstanding example of a window display.  Examples could include a retail display, a display for a vacant building, or a holiday display.

 

Outstanding Image Campaign – recognizes image advertising, including cooperative retail advertising that promote the district’s unique qualities, print materials that reinforce a graphic visual image, or media relations that put a positive spin on downtown activities.

 

Outstanding Façade Project – recognizes excellence for a downtown façade project.  If the building is historic, the improvements must adhere to the Secretary of the Interior’s standards for historic preservation. 

 

Outstanding Building Rehabilitation or Preservation Project - recognizes excellence in the comprehensive rehabilitation of a single downtown building (public or private). Projects can include interior and/or exterior building rehabilitation, including roofs, and should enhance the commercial district’s appearance and function as well as encouraging other rehabilitations. 

 

Outstanding Business Retention, Expansion or Recruitment Project/Program – Recognizes an outstanding example by a downtown revitalization organization to retain, expand, and/or recruit new businesses to downtown.  There should be clear results identified, such as number of jobs saved/created, number of square feet expanded, additional product lines added, number of businesses assisted, number of new businesses, number of program participants, etc.

 

Outstanding Smart Growth Project – recognizes a project that exemplifies the principles of smart growth in downtown.  This could include adaptive reuse of a building, preservation of open space, public transportation initiative, or improving pedestrian accessibility.  

 

Outstanding Public Official or Employee – recognizes a public official or employee who has gone beyond the “call of duty” to promote downtown revitalization at the local or state level. 

 

Community Spirit Award– recognizes an “out of the box”, creative downtown revitalization project that does not fit any of the above criteria, but exemplifies a creative approach or solution to a challenge in the downtown or utilizes the downtown to promote some greater good.