What an Iowa town can teach rural America

PULLMAN — A woman applying to be the chamber of commerce director in Webster City, Iowa, counted 14 empty buildings as she arrived in the town for an interview.

Understanding that challenge, she took the job in a community of 8,000 people that had lost a business employing about 800 people four years earlier, said Becky McCray, a founder of Save-Your.Town, a firm that develops strategies for improving rural downtowns.

McCray, of Hopeton, Okla., spoke Wednesday before about 100 people at the Inland Northwest Partners winter meeting at the Courtyard by Marriott in Pullman.

Inland Northwest Partners is sponsoring McCray’s visit to the region where she is touring and offering recommendations for the towns of Pullman, Uniontown, Palouse, Potlatch, Deary and Orofino.

Inland Northwest Partners is a not-for-profit organization whose founding investor is Avista Corp. It works to enhance the long-term economic health of north central Idaho, northern Idaho and southeastern Washington.

The approaches residents of Webster City and other small towns have used are starting points for rural communities facing similar issues, McCray said.

In the first week Webster City’s new chamber director was on the job, the town’s movie theater closed, adding yet another vacant storefront to the mix, McCray said.

“People told her, it’s like a gut punch,” she said.

The revitalization began with a tour of vacant buildings to highlight their potential. A total of 44 people attended, but no one bought a building.

The conversation about what to do continued on many fronts. Students in high school and college classes brainstormed potential uses.

One owner of three buildings found a way to establish an informal business incubator program where businesses received a few months of free rent and reduced rent after that.

The theater, which had ended up being owned by a national bank, became a rallying point.

High school students coined the name HERO, or the Help Entertain and Restore Organization, for a group saving the theater.

When attempts to reach the national bank’s real estate department went nowhere, town leaders convinced the bank’s marketing department to cut the price of the theater in half.

And they raised a quarter of a million dollars through small donations and sales of items such as old movie seats and movie posters.

“They had the building,” McCray said. “They did the rehab. They converted to digital projection, and they hired part-time staff to run the theater, a paid position.”

Nearby, more vitality returned. Within 18 months after the building tour, 10 of 12 buildings on the tour were filled.

Even towns that lack buildings don’t necessarily need big budgets to see results, McCray said.

A town in Pennsylvania spent 10 years trying to get a prominent vacant lot developed.

“They talked to every developer they could find,” she said. “They got laughed out of more offices than any of us ever have been.”

Eventually they landed a $50,000 government grant they used for dirt work and storage sheds that were dressed up by installing awnings and painting the exterior walls in bright colors.

Other amenities were added on the site like Wi-Fi, portable restrooms, a hand washing station, a gazebo and planters.

The tenants have included a retiree who does torn paper art, a satellite location of a bakery, a barbecue place and a winery.

Nearby businesses are taking cues from the new ventures, upgrading their facades and keeping longer hours that mirror those of the tenants on the former vacant lot.

“If a developer showed up, they should tell them to take a hike, because this is their incubator,” McCray said. “Businesses have located here and outgrown it and had to go buy other buildings.”

Williams may be contacted at ewilliam@lmtribune.com or (208) 848-2261.