Main Street
Elkin's Main Street Advisory Board
About Us
If you are interested in downtown Elkin, North Carolina – we are glad you are visiting this section of the Town of Elkin's website. This is our online meeting place where we organize our activities, share ideas, and publicize our mission.
Our Main Street Advisory Board (MSAB) committee is comprised of 8 board members and representatives (ex-officio's) from the Town of Elkin (Main Street & Community Manager, and Secretary of the MSAB), the Yadkin Valley Chamber of Commerce (President) and Downtown Elkin, Inc (President). Our board members serve a 3-year term, but these terms can also be extended. All members must apply for the position and must be approved by the Elkin Board of Commissioners before serving on the board.
Anyone who has a passion for downtown Elkin can apply for a seat on the board once there is availability and we welcome you to apply. You are expected to attend a required number of monthly meetings throughout the year, volunteer for committees, and be an active contributor to our projects and passions. We take our work seriously but enjoy the mission to improve our historic downtown experience!
If a position is not available, we gladly welcome volunteers and community members to attend our meetings and contribute ideas, so join us if you can each month. We'd love a diverse group of volunteers, so please feel free to reach out if you have any questions or just want to participate in events! Some ideas for volunteers could include:
-Provide skills such as design, marketing, social media imaging.
-Provide short video assistance for/during promotions.
-Skills with lighting/sound.
-Explore Elkin event volunteers.
-Light up Elkin volunteers.
-Help with marketing or wording bilingual posts on social media when needed.
We meet every 3rd Thursday of each month at 9:00 am. Our meeting place is currently at the Yadkin Valley Chamber of Commerce office at 257 W Standard St in the Heritage Center board room and our meetings are open to the public.
Our Work
We work together to make downtown Elkin interesting, vital, creative, aesthetically pleasing, and a place everyone in our community can enjoy and feel welcomed. To see examples of our projects, click here.
The funds we use to reinvest in the downtown are from the Municipal Service District (MSD) tax fund. We use these funds to bring vitality back to the downtown in many ways, such as banners, landscaping, facade and mural grants, and funding events along Main Street. Our passion is saving historic buildings and finding ways to improve our downtown district, which is on the National Register of Historic Places.
In the past, the MSAB has offered annual 50/50 matching grants for downtown merchants or building owners. These are offered each spring, and the focus for improvements can change each year. In the past funding has been provided for back alley wall improvements, murals, or front facades. See our page on funding for more information.
Join Us!
Our MSAB meetings are open to the public and are scheduled on the 3rd Tuesday of every month. Meetings are at the Yadkin Valley Chamber of Commerce board room at the Yadkin Valley Heritage & Trails Center (257 Standard St) at 9:00 am.There are attendance requirements as a board member, and training for the NC Main Street Program is required if you join the board. Priority is given to business owners in downtown who apply, and residents of Elkin, but the important requirement for the board states that you must be passionate about downtown.
You can apply as a board member (when there is availability): Applications for any Town of Elkin board can be found here.
You can apply as a board volunteer (anyone can join anytime!): Please click here to go to our volunteer application.
Current board members are:
- Christa Lilley (Chair),
- Teresa Chatham (Vice-Chair),
- Beth Sumner-Wall,
- Claire St. Cyr,
- Jeremy Stamps
- Kerri Ferrari,
- Graham "Bear" Ray
- Chelsea Testerman
- Main Street & Community Manager, Laura Gaylord (Ex-officio & Secretary).
- President of the Yadkin Valley Chamber of Commerce.
- President of Downtown Elkin Business Association.
- Explore Elkin representative.
- Town Commissioner representative: Cicely McCulloch.
- Explore Elkin Volunteers (manning the booths and working behind the scenes for downtown events), and especially Natalie Eidson, Brittany Russell, and Brittany Rogers (2.0) for their organization and marketing skills.
- Jennifer White (previous board member) who helped organize dancing events during Light up Night, along with Dan Butner of the Foothills Arts Center.
- Dan Butner and Brian Horton (previous board member) who helped us create the business wayfinding signs for downtown merchants.
- BETA Club at EHS for adopting Front St in downtown for litter pick up.
- The YV Garden Club for adopting Standards St for litter pick up.
- Monica Ferrari (Landscaping and planting assistance/Master Gardener)
- The Elkin Vine Line & Harry's Place for sponsoring and planting select planters in downtown.
The main contact for further questions is Laura Gaylord, Main Street & Community Manager: communitymanager@elkinnc.org
or
336-258-8908
As a Main Street America™ Accredited program, Elkin's Main Street Department is a recognized leading program among the national network of more than 1,200 neighborhoods and communities who share both a commitment to creating high-quality places and to building stronger communities through preservation-based economic development. All Main Street America™ Accredited programs meet a set of National Accreditation Standards of Performance as outlined by Main Street America.
Elkin is a North Carolina Main Street community, designated by the N.C. Department of Commerce Main Street & Rural Planning Center. The Elkin Main Street Advisory Board is charged with administering the program at the local level and building public-private partnerships to spur economic development that achieves measurable results such as investment, business growth, and job creation.
