her own business "To give herself a creative outlet, a community outlet, and to enhance the beauty of a downtown property."

Laney is always coming up with new and creative ideas for her business. She says what keeps her motivated is "Seeing the way people transform The Reserve for their events and giving the community a place to celebrate in the heart of downtown." Her favorite thing about her job is meeting new people. Laney's day-to-day consist of being a stay at home mom. She says she "Created this business to be as passive as possible. Relying on renters to pick-up after themselves".

Laney's advice for someone wanting to open a business is "Do it! But also take time in the planning phase to get all your financials in place and determining how to troubleshoot." Her favorite part about working in Downtown Hawkinsville is all the beautiful buildings. Something Laney would like to see in Downtown Hawkinsville in the future is "More businesses that are inviting to night events, traffic, and creating atmospheres." She is involved in DDA and is also a city commissioner.

The Main Street Office would like to congratulate The Reserve on Commerce for a year of commitment to Downtown Hawkinsville. We can't wait to see all the things you will accomplish in the next couple of years. Feel free to contact Laney for a beautiful place to host your next event at 478-230-1160. For more information go to www.thereserveoncommerce.com.

The purpose of the Downtown Development Revolving Loan Fund (DDRLF) is to assist cities, counties, and development authorities in their efforts to revitalize and enhance downtown areas by providing below-market rate financing to fund capital projects in core historic downtown areas and adjacent historic neighborhoods where DDRLF will spur commercial redevelopment.

The maximum loan is $250,000 per project. Applications will be accepted throughout the year and as loan funds are available. Applicants must demonstrate that they have a viable downtown development project and clearly identify the proposed uses of the loan proceeds. Once approved, the funds may be used for such activities as: real estate acquisition, development, redevelopment, and new construction; rehabilitation of public and private infrastructure and facilities, purchase of equipment and other assets (on a limited basis).

The Downtown Development Authority has ordered signs for Downtown Hawkinsville property owners to use while trying to find a buyer or lessee. We have For Lease, For Sale, and For Sale/Lease signs ready for you to pick so that you can market your property. Economic Development & Main Street Director, Jamie Wilson will also vet inquiries and help you find the best renter or buyer for your property. Please call Jamie Wilson at 478-208-0805 and ask for a sign today!

Planning Rural Opportunities for Prosperity and Economic Leadership (PROPEL) was launched in 2022. The program provides rural communities with resources to create systems necessary to support their own economic and workforce development strategies. The two-year program is funded by a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant; it also received a $250,000 gift from the UGA Foundation in the spring of 2022.

In 2022, Hawkinsville-Pulaski County applied and received the PROPEL grant to form a community led Economic Development plan for the area. The program will guide low-income rural cities and counties, like Pulaski County, through a six-step model to develop and execute a plan to advance their economies. This model will focus on economic development, data analysis, strategic planning, community engagement and vision setting over a course of two years.

Currently, Pulaski County is at the Citizen Input stage of this process, and we need your help! Scan the code in the above picture and take the survey so that we can identify what the community wants and needs.  

On Thursday, November 3, 2022, Downtown Hawkinsville's Main Street Program held the First Downtown Annual Meeting to network with downtown businesses, share the programs accomplishments in 2022, and inform businesses on what the Main Street Program will be working on in 2023. The meeting was held at The Reserve and 43 people attended. This meeting was just one way our program is working to keep our downtown businesses informed and active in our downtown community. During this meeting, Hawkinsville Main Street recognized our Downtown Development Authority board, as well as downtown businesses and volunteers who were advocates in downtown revitalization efforts this year.

The Hawkinsville Main Street program would like to publicly recognize and congratulate our award recipients Jody and Karen Heath who received the Downtown Volunteer of the Year award, Jo's Pizza who received the Downtown Community Spirit award, and SunMark Community Bank who received our Downtown Business of the Year award.

The Hawkinsville Main Street program would also like to thank our sponsors: Purpose Insurance, Riverside Wine & Spirits, SunMark Community Bank, and The Reserve. Without your support, our Downtown Annual Meeting would not have been such a success!

Thank you, Downtown Hawkinsville, for all your support this year! The Hawkinsville Downtown Development Authority and Hawkinsville's Main Street Program can't wait to serve you in 2023.

If you attended the event, please take some time to fill out this quick survey to help us focus our efforts for 2023.

Like a downtowns buildings, a city's streets and sidewalks help make the first impression of the community. Commerce Street, downtown's traditional commercial corridor, was cited by local residents for issues like heavy truck traffic, excessive speeding, unsafe pedestrian crossings, and dangerous parking. The RSVP requested that Commerce Street go through a "road diet" to reduce unnecessary lanes, slow excessive speeding, and make room for accessible angled parking. All of the changes will create a visitor friendly environment. Often, restriping roads is the most efficient and affordable way to reconfigure a city's streetscape to create a safe, inviting, and accessible community for residents and visitors. The dense collection of businesses, parked vehicles, and pedestrians downtown make Commerce Street unsuitable and unsafe for travel speeds above 25 mph.

As part of this planning effort, planners and designers at the Carl Vinson Institute of Government collaborated with the city, county, and GDOT to create updated striping plans for Commerce Street. Commerce Street has now been reduced to two travel lanes with the addition of a central turn lane and 5-foot bike lanes on both the east-and west-bound sides of Commerce Street. Although these plans meet the requirements of GDOT and improve the corridor, Hawkinsville leaders will continue working with GDOT to incorporate angled parking, midblock crosswalks, and expanded traffic-calming measures along the Commerce Street corridor, to achieve the communities long term vision of Commerce Street.

The Decorate Downtown Holiday Contest was started by the Hawkinsville Main Street program in 2021. The Hawkinsville Main Street Program's goal for this contest was to create a little holiday spirit in Downtown Hawkinsville by decorating downtown buildings to attract people to come and enjoy downtown for the holidays. In early October, the Main Street Office announces the decorating theme, which is the same theme as the Christmas Parade. 

We then create a voting form, make QR codes for participating businesses doors, and let citizens vote for their favorite participating business by scanning the code while they are in downtown. The business who has the most votes win’s the Decorate Downtown Holiday Contest trophy and the winner is announced at the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony.

This year, our goal was to continue this holiday tradition.

The Decorate Downtown Holiday Contest’s theme this year was Holly Jolly Christmas. This year, 16 businesses participated in this contest and 1,527 citizens voted. The winner, Batts Drug Company was announced at the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on Friday, December 2, 2022, where they received a trophy.

The Hawkinsville Main Street program would like to thank Batt’s Drug Company, as well as all the businesses who decorated for Decorate Downtown Holiday Contest. We would also like to thank everyone who came downtown to vote and support their favorite decorated business. 

2022 DECORATE DOWNTOWN HOLIDAY CONTEST PARTICIPATING BUSINESSES:

Christi Flores Studio

Batts Drug Company

Rosa's Food Pantry/ Democracy Center

Hawkinsville Antique Mall

Jodi's

Jo's Pizza

Jade's Salon

The Hawkinsville Opera House

Planters First Bank

SunMark Community Bank

The Grill

Bree Harrell State Farm

Greene Finance

Treasures on Lumpkin

The Rustic Bistro and Bakery

Holly'z Wagz and Wigglez

On November 26, 2022, the Hawkinsville Main Street Program hosted our first annual Holiday Open House on Small Business Saturday. In order to incentivize people to shop local for the holidays, the Main Street program organized a raffle for a holiday gift basket full of goodies generously donated by participating downtown businesses. For every purchase made at a participating business, shoppers could enter to win the raffle prize.

The raffle was drawn on the day of the Holiday Open House at 5:30 on Facebook Live. Debra Bailey was the winner of the Holiday Open House gift basket.

We are so grateful for everyone who attended the Holiday Open House and shopped small on Saturday, November 26th. We encourage you to not only shop local on Small Business Saturday, but everyday. Shopping locally helps support your community and small business owners. This event represents a significant opportunity to increase sales for small businesses during the holiday shopping season.

DATE: DECEMBER 13, 2022

TIME: 10 AM

LOCATION: CITY HALL

The Downtown Development Authority will meet on Tuesday, December 13 , 2022 at City Hall from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. to discuss Downtown Hawkinsville Business.

DATE: DECEMBER 11, 2022

TIME: 3-5 PM

LOCATION: HAWKINSVILLE OPERA HOUSE

Come see 7 local church choirs sing at the Christmas Concert on December the 11th from 3-5 p.m. at The Opera House.

DATE: DECEMBER 23, 2022

TIME: 10 AM TO 12 PM

LOCATION: PLANTERS FIRST BANK

The Planters First Bank will be hosting Pictures with Santa on December 23rd from 10 AM to 12 PM. Take a picture with Santa and grab some hot chocolate and cookies while you are there. So bring your camera and make your way to Planters First Bank is located at 105 Commerce Street in Hawkinsville, Georgia.