With three organizations — the Alliance for Downtown Meridian, Meridian Main Street, and the Meridian Downtown Association — all working to help downtown Meridian grow, there has been some confusion as to which group does what.

Since all three of those groups work under the same roof and even share some staff members, it's no surprise that people have trouble differentiating the groups from one another.

To explain what each group does — how they are different and how their goals intertwine — representatives from all three spoke recently with The Meridian Star.

Even sorting out their titles was confusing. Larry Jones is the executive director of the Alliance. Kenny Watts is the president of the board of the Alliance, and the past president of the Association. Michelle Pearson is a member of the Association, and also serves on the board of the Alliance. Amy Reede is the manager of Meridian Main Street, but is an employee of the Alliance.

A little hard to follow, right? Part of what makes it so confusing is this: though each group is a separate entity with separate goals and separate funding, they all fall under the umbrella organization of the Alliance.

"We're completely separate organizations, but we all work together for the enhancement of downtown Meridian," Pearson said. "Our job is to make downtown a better place to live and work. We all have different ways of trying to achieve that, but we work together."

Each group has its own specific goals and duties for downtown and its own source of funding:



Alliance for Downtown Meridian



The Alliance promotes downtown development and historic building restoration. It has been designated as the city's downtown economic development program, and is funded partially by the city. But its primary source of funding, Jones said, comes through donations from major downtown businesses.

Part of the way the Alliance promotes development is by keeping a list of commercial space available for lease or sale downtown. The list includes pertinent information like location, approximate rent, and contact information, and is made available to people who might want to open a business downtown.

Along with helping potential downtown business-people select a location, the Alliance helps with other aspects of starting a new business, such as obtaining permits.

The Alliance also helps coordinate the many different plans that a number of people and organizations have for downtown. They make a list of priorities for big projects, coordinate different downtown "master plans," and try to find a way to execute plans for downtown.

The Alliance works especially hard to assist in the development of specialty shops, restaurants, and bars and grilles, because, Jones said, these types of businesses will help downtown become active both during the day and at night.

Another thing the Alliance is working on is a proposal they plan to bring to the city council to designate parts of downtown as an entertainment district. That designation will provide tax incentives to property owners who make certain kinds of improvements to entertainment-related businesses within the district.



Meridian Downtown Association



The downtown association raises all of its funds through membership dues and donations from business owners in downtown Meridian. It's primary purpose is to encourage foot traffic downtown.

Pearson said the Association has existed in different configurations and levels of activity since the 1940's, and currently has a large volunteer pool.

The primary way that the Association works to meet its goal of increasing foot traffic downtown is by organizing special events.

The two main events that the Association coordinates are the annual Merry Meridian celebration — which includes the Christmas Parade and the Merry Meridian Market — and the State Games block party.

The Association used to coordinate the Meridian Mardi Gras event, but that event was scrapped due to consistent bad weather. They decided to do away with the event rather than attempt to salvage it, Pearson said, because "we're trying to put our effort behind things that work."

They are also available to help with any other downtown event, such as Juneteenth or the Soule Live Steam Festival, that might come up. Pearson said the Association can provide downtown events with volunteers to do things like selling drinks, directing traffic, and welcoming people.

The Association is also involved in clean-up — they recently picked up trash from Front Street to 14th Street — and beautification. They help with seasonal displays and encourage downtown property owners to keep their store fronts looking nice.

Basically, anything the Association can do to get people walking around downtown, they want to do it.

Future plans of the association include a possible "holiday spectacular" in front of the renovated City Hall in 2010.



Meridian Main Street



The Meridian Main Street Association is where the confusion in differentiating the three organizations really lies because it is tightly woven into the fabric of the Alliance.

Like the Alliance, Main Street is funded both by the city and by donations from major downtown businesses. It receives its city funding through the Alliance which, by contract with the city, operates and administrates Meridian Main Street.

However, Meridian Main Street is a separate organization that is part of the Mississippi Main Street Association. It is managed by Reede, who is technically an employee of the Alliance but has completed extensive training from the Main Street organization.

Reede described Meridian Main Street as "almost like a mini-chamber for downtown." Its primary purpose is to support existing businesses downtown.

MMS puts out an e-newsletter, promotes retailers and other businesses downtown, keeps a list of businesses that come and go downtown, and Reede keeps up with the Alliance's property list.

MMS will hold retail and restaurant focus groups for downtown, help out with Merry Meridian by organizing the Merry Sale and Window Decorating Contest for retailers, and is working to organize a more consistent look for downtown by encouraging the use of similar park benches, trash receptacles, and banners.

Like other Main Street programs, MMS works to coordinate the visions of the city government, downtown business owners, and downtown residents on what downtown should look like.



Working Together



The Meridian Downtown Association and Meridian Main Street both fall under the umbrella organization of the Alliance for Downtown Meridian. This means that they use the Alliance's support staff and housing, and that the Alliance serves as a liaison between the organizations.

It is the Alliance that pulls the three groups together to work for downtown, coordinating their efforts and making sure they communicate effectively with one another.

Though each group has different immediate goals for downtown, they all aspire to the same ultimate purpose — helping downtown grow.