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The Farmville Downtown Partnership held a board meeting on Jan. 28 over Zoom to discuss improving and maintaining Main Street. 

At this annual public meeting, the Farmville Downtown Partnership Board of Directors hosted Jeff Sadler to advise them on moving forward with the development of Main Street and Downtown Farmville. Sadler had met with the board in October to lend advice he has learned while working with other locations in Virginia. 

According to Sadler, Farmville’s Main Street is doing better than many places where he was brought on to help. In addition, he noted that the town has destination locations that help Farmville stand out, like Green Front Furniture. 

“It’s a place like no other,” he said. “When you’re in Farmville, you know you’re in Farmville.”

He suggested creating four committees that would focus on organization, design, promotion and economic development. The board members said that they would further discuss this topic and appoint chairs for the committees at a different time. 

Sadler then had the board members revisit the vision and mission statements they made at the October retreat to see if they still felt like the statements properly communicated what the board wants to accomplish for downtown. 

After reviewing the vision statement, the board voted to leave it as it is:

“Our vision is for an attractive, fun and connected downtown district, bustling with a wide variety of successful businesses; a downtown that leverages its historical character and cultural appeal to be a welcoming place for students, visitors, residents and investors to choose to be.”  

The board reviewed the mission statement and decided on a few edits to fully encompass who the Partnership wants to connect with and how. After a bit of discussion, the board approved the improved mission statement:

“The Mission of Farmville Downtown Partnership is to connect residents, merchants, property owners, visitors and students in order to preserve and enhance downtown’s role as the hub of our unique historic community and continue to invigorate Farmville as a fun and profitable place to live, learn, conduct business, invest and visit.”

The board is also working with a Main Street program in Wyoming. They hope this partnership will help both parties create a memorable and unique experience for those who visit and live in their respective towns. 

In other business, the Partnership is working with the Barbara Rose Johnson Farmville-Prince Edward Community Library to do a StoryWalk. They plan on working with the businesses on Main Street to have a page from a picture book in their window during March. Then, while walking down Main Street, families can read the pages in each window to experience the whole story. 

The Farmville Downtown Partnership also discussed creating more of a presence on social media by highlighting the members and eventually building a stronger presence.