BlackburnNews.com photoBlackburnNews.com photo
Midwestern

Minto Official Shares Downtown Ideas

The economic development manager for the Town of Minto says small towns face a number of challenges in keeping their main streets alive.

Belinda Wick-Graham shared some ideas at a recent municipal conference and explains people often have to travel out of their home community for work and tend to do at least some of their shopping where they work.

Other factors include stores on the main street are often not open when people want to shop, online shopping and declining populations.

But Wick-Graham says in Minto and around Wellington County they have found some solutions.

She says encouraging residential development on the second floor is very effective in generating income for developers while they find retail tenants for the ground floor. And by attracting residential development they're adding potential shoppers for the retail sector.

Wick-Graham says it's very important for the municipality to do their research so they have readily available all of the information potential developers are looking for.

Read More Local Stories