Main Street Pinedale's mission is to provide support and enhancement to the downtown area that contributes to Pinedale's unique sense of place and maintains the area as the social, cultural, and financial hub of our community that attracts civic pride, investment and visitors.

1. How is Main Street different from other local organizations?
While Main Street Pinedale, The Sublette County Chamber of Commerce, and Sublette Economic Resource Council are all concerned with enhancing sustainable economics' in the area, how they go about it is different. The Chamber's primary activity is business promotion through events and advertising, with some education. SERC's is leadership and resources. Both programs approach is through individual business development on a County-wide level.

Main Street Pinedale's focus is looking at downtown Pinedale in its entirety. How does the sum of the parts come together? Main Street's activities are comprehensive and directed at 4 areas; design, promotion, economics, and organization. Besides a comprehensive focus, Main Street has a heavy emphasis on partnering with other organizations and using volunteers for projects. Main Street Pinedale's initial focus includes partnering with the Town for district wide improvements such as street beautification, and establishing a downtown market position. Financial incentives for building improvements will also be developed.

2. What is Governments role?
The Main Street Program was begun through the National Trust for Historic Preservation, but is organized on the State level. In Wyoming, the Main Street Program is through the Wyoming Business Council. The state provides financial and technical services to the local Main Street Programs. At the local level Main Street programs can be administered as a municipal department under a downtown development authority or urban renewal agency, or as a separate nonprofit, or as a combination of municipal dept. with a non-profit arm for fundraising. Pinedale has chosen to operate a non-profit with the in-kind donation of Town staff time. The downtown is comprised of parcels owned by private persons, state government, and local government and they all have a role to play.

Town of Pinedale is the largest landowner in downtown Pinedale. What and how the Town manages the streets directly impacts adjacent private property owners. It is in the Town's best interest to develop those areas in a way that benefits adjacent private property.

3. Where is the money for Main Street coming from?
Main Street is securely funding from a variety of sources ranging from the local government, to government grants, private grants and foundations, to private donations and fundraising. Main Street Pinedale is a 501-C3 non-profit, since much coordination is required for Main Street's activities on Town property; town provides some staff support to the organization. Funding received through the non-profit is utilized for projects the Town would not otherwise have the money to pay for.

4. What will the information I provide be used for?
As part of the State Program, Main Street Pinedale collects the number of new jobs and businesses, cost of building renovations, and number of volunteer hours spent downtown each quarter. These numbers allow Main Street to track the improvements in downtown. Other questions included in the quarterly survey are strictly for the local program to better understand what the downtown is composed of, and which services or activities would be most beneficial.

5. Why Main Street?
Residents repeatedly say they want more trees, downtown beautification, economic diversification, attracting more tourists, retaining Pinedale's character, working together, retaining youth, having more to do (e.g. nightlife). Customers want more choices and a better shopping environment. Businesses want more sales and consistent business. Youth need jobs. Main Street is the perfect program to work on all these items in the context of downtown. It is a forum for volunteers to come together and make the improvements they want to see in the downtown.

Pinedale has a lot of opportunity. Consider these:
• In 2010, Sublette County residents spent an estimated $154. 2 million on retail sales, only $82.7 million was spent in County, $71 million was spent outside the County. $71 million is a tremendous opportunity for local business.
• In 2006, Wyoming had the lowest economic diversification factor of all 50 states, totaling 34% out of 100%, all neighboring states scored over 90%. Where do you think Pinedale stands?

Pinedale has a large percentage of independently owned and operated businesses which statistically contribute more back to the community, than big-box stores, formula chains, and corporate businesses which export profits back to the head branch. Most studies indicate for every 100 dollars spent locally independent businesses circulate 30-50 dollars back into the community through paying employees, rent, and for local professional services such as web design, accounting, legal, advertising and other business expenses. Conversely, big-box and the like contribute 10-15 dollars for every hundred dollars.

Independent businesses have a greater stake in the local community and collectively volunteer and donate more money to local causes. The more local business is supported the more we all get back.

Tourism in Pinedale has generally focused on the plethora of outdoor activities that Sublette County has to offer. Yet cultural and heritage tourism is an expanding segment with 81% of adult travelers considering themselves heritage travelers, 44% of these include shopping as part of travel plans, 67% are looking for items that represent the destination they are visiting. Pinedale has tremendous tourism opportunity to collectively develop heritage & cultural tourism in the downtown and promote the area through the lodging tax.

Yellowstone received 3.5 million tourists last year. There are 7 major routes and Pinedale is one of them. If everyone drove and traffic was divided equally between routes, that's 500,000 people a year, or 1300 a day. One traffic count reports 7000 cars a day on Pine Street. How many tourists are stopping in Pinedale? How many at your business?

6. I like Pinedale the way it is (I don't want to turn into Jackson).
Pinedale is its own unique community that will develop in response to its own residents, economic and environmental factors just as other communities develop in response to their own distinctive features. Main Street Pinedale's objective is to celebrate the Pinedale in Pinedale and utilize our local talent and resources to forge and enhance Pinedale's own identity as a community. Not to copy other communities.

While there are similarities between the two communities, Pinedale has no desire to become Jackson, nor does Pinedale possess the attributes that make Jackson what it is. Jackson is a ski town and a gateway to a National Park, both of those are powerful indicators of large numbers of tourists, seasonal workers, and wealthy second home owners.

Tourism takes coordinated efforts on many fronts from numerous organizations and individual businesses over a span of many years. This process is something Jackson has been engaged in for decades, promotion and market positioning of Teton County. The sheer amount of tourism has increased the demand for first and second homes. With only 3% of private land they are forced to have strict regulations to ensure quality development that contributes to the community over the long term. Additionally, their economy is based on the "quality" of the outdoor resources, including vistas and wildlife. Tourism dependant on pristine natural resources has lead to them to be environmentally vigilant to protect their source of income.

Jackson is by default a destination because of its status as a direct gateway to the first national park. They have further positioned themselves as a world class destination through their mix of activities and continue to work to maintain that distinction.

Pinedale has a lot of opportunity to increase tourism, but has not fully developed any of the features that make up its tourism mix. Pinedale has merely expressed interest in increasing tourism, not becoming a world class destination.

Main Street Pinedale is for improving the quality of life for residents first and tourists second. Mainstreet's members recognize that for many people and businesses improved "quality of life" means increasing tourism to support existing businesses and to start diversifying the local economy.

Main Street's role is to act as a forum for what might be possible in downtown and right now that means improving pedestrian amenities (beautification) and establishing a market position so Downtown Pinedale can best utilize the resources we have to attract increased dollars from both visitors and residents.

7. What is the difference between Main Street Pinedale and the Downtown Master Plan?
The Downtown Master Plan is a process being undertaken by the Town of Pinedale to guide development and enhancements in the downtown. Components included in the Plan were indentified through previous Town documents and meetings. The process includes public input through the use of public meetings, stakeholder interviews and appointing a steering committee of interested residents. The result of the plan will be a document that outlines the components through descriptions, maps, and public comment. The Community will then be able to implement the plan by utilizing private and public financing through local and state government, grants, civic & service organizations, and other methods.
Main Street Pinedale is a civic & service organization that participated in and helped initiate discussions about downtown Pinedale and will assist in implementation of some components indentified in the Downtown Master Plan.

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