The Kingsville City Commission has made a renewed commitment to revitalizing the traditional downtown and to preserving historic resources.

The next step in the process is the city’s application for recertification as a Texas Main Street Community.

“Texas Main Street will provide technical assistance, training, and marketing assistance aimed at making our downtown more vibrant – in entertainment, recreation, shopping activities, and economic opportunities,” Bob Trescott, City of Kingsville downtown manager, said.

“A major part of our application is proving strong and active community support for the city’s official commitment,” he said.

“We need letters from agencies, organizations, businesses, individuals and families from all sectors of the Kingsville community affirming support for historic preservation and downtown revitalization,” Trescott said.

He said letters should reflect the point-of-view and interest of the letter writer.

“For example: historic preservation, economic development, opportunities and support for small businesses, overall quality of life for the whole community, etc.,” Trescott said.

Letters should be sent to Mayor Sam Fugate at PO Box 1458, Kingsville, Texas 78364 or email them to mayor@ cityofkingsville.com.

The following is information that might be helpful in drafting a letter:

The Texas Main Street Program, part of the Texas Historical Commission Community Heritage Development Division, helps Texas cities revitalize their historic downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts using preservation and economic development strategies.

Today there are 84 Texas Main Street programs. Over time, Texas Main Street communities have realized more than $2 billion in economic reinvestment, the creation of almost 25,000 local jobs and the expansion or creation of almost 6,400 businesses in their Main Street districts.

The State program is affiliated with the National Trust Main Street Center® which leads a coast-to-coast network of more than 1,200 state, regional, and local programs linked through a preservation-based strategy for rebuilding the places and enterprises that create sustainable, vibrant, and unique communities.

In 1981, the City Commission applied for designation as one of the first Texas Main Street Communities. Kingsville participated in the program for three years until some major contractions in local industries caused economic hardship and municipal cutbacks, including suspending the Main Street program.

Some of our continuing historic preservation ethic, including our Historical Development Board, historic surveys, historic preservation renovation projects, and historical markers, can be traced to our Main Street experience.

In 1992, the City Commission made the commitment to become a Certified Local Government (CLG). The CLG Program is a local, state and federal government partnership for historic preservation. It is designed to help cities and counties develop high standards of preservation to protect a wide range of important historic properties - from ornate courthouses to working-class neighborhoods.

Local governments that participate in the CLG Program act independently to develop and maintain a successful preservation program. The Texas Historical Commission administers the program at the state level and Fines the National Park Service is the responsible federal agency.

In 2008, the Kingsville City Commission adopted a city-wide master plan that identified downtown revitalization as a significant community goal.

“In 2009, the city commission made a commitment to seek Texas Main Street Community recertification and made the significant commitment to create a municipal position, downtown manager, to administer a downtown revitalization and beautification effort, including the pursuit of Texas Main Baby Street designation,” Trescott noted.

Trescott was hired for the position in January of 2010.

Unlike many towns that just grew, the core of Kingsville was planned before being laid out and built along with the railroad in 1904.

The depot and the street grid defined downtown from the beginning; and commercial and industrial buildings, the Courthouse and the HM King School soon filled in the landscape along the railroad tracks.

For Kingsville’s Texas Main Street Program appli- cation, the community will concentrate on the area east of the railroad, along retail-oriented Kleberg Avenue, between Yoakum and King avenues, to include the Depot, City Hall, HEB, and the Kleberg County Courthouse; and along Sixth Street from Alice Avenue to King Avenue to include the old Ice House (now the Henrietta Memorial Center that houses the King Ranch Museum) and the historic Post Office (on the site of the artesian well that is the reason for the location of the depot and the town center).

“Once the program is well established, the Main Street district might be extended westward to the old H.M. King High School and in other directions, as well,” Trescott said.

At a recent gathering for the Kingsville downtown chat series held for several Tuesdays, there was a discussion about possible design projects and programs for a downtown revitalization.

Among many of the topics discussed at the session were historic preservation, markers, streetscaping, access and parking, shade, public art, and design services.

“We are taking a four-point approach in planning, which has been adapted from a system 1,800 other profitable communities have used,” Trescott said.

“The four points include organization, design, promotion, and economic restructuring,” he said.

Trescott said each of these four points play a crucial role in the successful redevelopment of the downtown area and the current plans for the area.

“We have a lot of things planned for this revitalization such as creating a downtown urban zoning district to preserve its historic urban character as well as the Texas Main Street recertification,” Trescott said.

A local historical marker program, oral history tours, and sculptures were just a few of the suggested items by those attended, which could help boost traffic in the area.

Faculty members from the Texas A&M University-Kingsville Art Department suggested an art space where art students could work and the public could walk though the space and observe the students painting.

Murals on the north exterior wall of H-E-B were also brought into the discussion as a way of making the area more vibrant and colorful.

Dr. Monica Santella, a business communications professor at TAMUK, recently assigned her students a project where they were asked to come up with a plan and design for the downtown area in order to generate more interest from the general public.

Santella spoke of the “Freedom Trail,” a long path through downtown Boston that passes 16 of the city’s historic landmarks. It starts at the visitor information center where travelers can pick up a map and brochures and all of the sites are marked along a red-painted line.

“Perhaps that is something to think about here where a painted line that designates the historic area could be walked by visitors and tourists,” Santella said.

A covered walkway from the Train Depot to the Henrietta Memorial Center was also discussed as a way to get people out of their cars and into downtown businesses.

“We need more shade in the area so that the area is more inviting to people who are willing to walk rather than drive down the street,” Trescott said.

As a way to pull university students to the area, Dr. Stephan J. Nix, Dean of the Frank H. Dotterweich College of Engineering at Texas A&M University-Kingsville, would like to get engineering students in a space downtown to work on projects for the city, such as a redesign of the opera house.

“I would like to see 50 to a 100 students in the area working on projects,” Nix said. “There are not very many opportunities for engineering students in this community to intern so this could be a great program that would lend an air of viberance to the area, and may even encourage students to move to the downtown area, which would bring in revenue dollars to downtown businesses.”

Trescott also spoke of making King Street avenue with center landscaping and directing signage from Highway 77 down King so that downtown could be the main attraction.

“There are a lot of ideas that need to be coordinated, so we need to look at committees and subcommittees for each area in order to get organized and implement these ideas efficiently,” Trescott said.

“This is what these meetings are for, so that citizens of the community can network and get the ball rolling on the many exciting changes in the future.”