Along with Hurricane Katrina ravaging the Gulf Coast andwreaking havoc on much of the rest of the state, Hurricane Katrinapushed to the side Brookhaven’s plans to become a Mississippi MainStreet Community.

Now, community officials have decided to pick up where they leftoff and hope to know something about selection by the end of thisyear.

“We had finished interviews and the Main Street Mississippistaff came into town and we had public meeting with them just daysbefore Katrina hit,” said Brookhaven-Lincoln County Chamber ofCommerce Executive Vice-president Cliff Brumfield. “After thehurricane, we put that project to the side for some time.”

The Mississippi Main Street program states that its approach todowntown revitalization hinges on the areas of design,organization, promotion, and economic restructuring. Mayor BobMassengill said all of these aspects play a major part of whatmakes Brookhaven a strong city.

“Some other towns, you can see that they’ve lost their downtownand will probably have a hard time getting it back,” he said. “ButBrookhaven has a strong downtown, and I and the city board areinterested in doing anything we can to continue to strengthenit.”

Bob Wilson, director of program services at the Mississippi MainStreet Association, emphasized that a city has to understand theimportance of being a part of the Main Street program.

“When we select a Main Street community, we bring an awful lotof professionals to the community and do strategic planning on alocal level,” he said. “We want to make sure the community isstrong for their own good, of course, but also for Main Street tostay strong.”

Brumfield said the chamber’s Leadership Class is currentlyworking on the finishing touches of the application, and it isexpected to be finished by the end of February. Should Brookhavenbe selected, it would open the door to many resources the citydoesn’t have at this point.

“By becoming certified it would mean we could utilize a muchbroader spectrum of business development services that couldgreater benefit our local business and building owners,” saidBrumfield, who added that it would allow renovation also. “It wouldbe a chance to take advantage of those privileges that areavailable through Main Street.”

Wilson said the selection committee will determine which of theapplying communities have the best chance to become successfulaffiliated programs, at which point they will determine how manycommunities can be added to the roster in 2008.

“We’ve been running about three a year, but we’ve put on someadditional staff,” said Wilson. “We’ll announce how many will comein during the next year, and we’ll start designations in January of2008, and schedule it from there.”