Havre moves forward with Montana Main Street plans

With Havre now approved as an affiliate in the Montana Department of Commerce Montana Main Street program, Downtown Havre Matters! Chair Steve Helmbrecht and Bear Paw Development Corp. Executive Director Paul Tuss said the next step is to make a master plan.

“The main street program is not a cookie-cutter approach, what we do in Havre is going to be different than what they do in Anaconda which is going to be different than what they do in Livingston, so it’s really a grassroots model to re-energize downtown cores. A lot of downtown could use a little TLC,” Tuss said. “Now, we need to put together a really master plan, we’ve been very consistent in saying we need a master plan to kind of vision what downtown Havre could look like and what it could be.”

Downtown Havre Matters!, the group that applied to the Department of Commerce for the affiliation, was notified last week that it was accepted.

Tuss said creating the master plan is going to be a big point going to be talked about at a Downtown Havre Matters! meeting next week, he said.

Helmbrecht said that the Downtown Havre Matters! group is a living, breathing, changing group that has ideas coming from everywhere.

“Now we just need to focus on why the program was conceived and work toward getting our master plan,” he said.

People who have ideas for what they would like to see downtown or who would like to provide input, can contact Tuss at ptuss@bearpaw.org .

Tuss said that at next week’s meeting the group will also discuss. What a master plan looks like, what professional assistance they need to put that document together, where the financial resources are available to them to help put this together and public input.

“I think it’s a nice recognition by the state of Montana,” Tuss said, “for the hard work that has been put into this downtown effort already here in Havre. A lot of people put in a lot of hours, frankly for years, and it’s nice to be recognized by the state of Montana as one of the few communities that were acknowledged this go-around as an affiliate community of the main street program.”

He said he thinks every strong community has a strong downtown, adding that Havre’s downtown has a lot of assets and challenges just like any community.

“I think this is a golden opportunity for us to come together whether or not you are a downtown business or whether or not you are retired in this community, we want to see this community to grow,” Tuss said. “I think this downtown master plan is an incredibly important building block for making this community more livable, more attractive for commercial activity and just a great place to raise a family.”

“This is what we have been working for for the last several months, to get this approved, but it’s only the beginning, it’s only the start,” Helmbrecht said. “Now comes where we need resources from our people that we’ve been working with. Now is when we need input, now is when we need a plan to go forward.”

He said his vision includes business owners downtown continuing to come together for revitalization and physical improvements and to continuing to execute improvements, adding that the last time a master plan was done for downtown Havre was more than 20 years ago. 

The next Downtown Havre Matters! meeting is Monday, March 23, at noon at Bear Paw Development.

Several other communities along with Havre were approved as affiliates in the program in February, including Anaconda/Deer Lodge County, Deer Lodge, Great Falls, Helena, Kalispell and Libby.

In July 2019, the city of Havre community members met to start the planning for Havre to become a Montana Main Street Affiliate Community.

The Montana Main Street program helps communities strengthen and preserve their historic downtown commercial districts.

To learn more about the Main Street Montana program, people can visit http://mtmainstreet.mt.gov .