Hope for Wellston
Support from the Voinovich Center gives Jackson County town a future

By Marisa Palmieri

A black-smocked hairdresser from Tangles salon walks her patron out to a green Volkswagen Beetle parked alone on Ohio Avenue in Wellston. "So I'll see you in what, six weeks?" the woman asks, getting into her car, smiling and waving as she pulls away.

It's lunchtime on Friday, and Ohio Avenue -- Wellston's version of Main Street USA -- is now deserted except for a crew preparing to tear down an old brick building on the corner of Ohio and Second streets.

It's been 40 years since Wellston was "really booming," back when "you couldn't find a parking space in the downtown area," says Jerry Ghearing, a lifelong Wellston resident and owner of Louvee Video and Tanning and other downtown properties.

Today, parking is not a problem, and Wellston is struggling like many small rural towns. Empty storefronts outnumber operating businesses eight to six on one downtown block. As big-box stores move into the area and young people move out, small businesses are doing all they can to stay afloat.

Unwilling to sit back and watch their hometown fade away, the people of Wellston mobilized in fall 2003. A team of residents/business owners tapped the resources and expertise at Ohio University's Voinovich Center for Leadership and Public Affairs to breathe new life into their downtown district.

The partnership was initiated by state Sen. John Carey, AB '81, a Wellston native and advisory committee member to the Voinovich Center's Institute for Local Government Administration and Rural Development, or ILGARD.

"I felt there was a lot of potential," Carey says, "but nothing was going to happen unless community leaders came together."

And come together they did. Carey, the mayor's office, Jackson County Economic Development Director Doug Fry, and the Jackson County Economic Development Board recruited Ghearing; Shannon Webber, a local attorney; Betsy Fain, owner of Cards and Keepsakes; Darin Lebraun, a city engineer; Donna Summers, owner of Donna Summers Realty; and Barbara McKinniss to form an ad hoc planning group to discuss vacant space in the downtown Wellston area. The planning committee began meeting with ILGARD Project Manager Rachael Hoy to lay out a revitalization plan. In summer 2004 the ad hoc group officially became the Wellston Central Business District.

"We're sort of at a crossroads. Our downtown is facing deterioration," Webber says. "We're trying to save businesses and get people to stick around."

While the commission brainstormed, ILGARD got to work on a market study -- which analyzed the demographics of Wellston and surrounding areas -- and conducted a survey to see what types of businesses residents would patronize.

Based on the market study and community input, ILGARD recommended 10 niche retail businesses and service providers that aren't available in the area and would thrive in downtown Wellston.

"For example, some of the data suggested that people in that region like buffet restaurants," Hoy explains. "We didn't suggest any particular restaurant, but we made the suggestion that certain types of buffets would do well." Other suggestions include a pharmacy, a professional office suite and a weight-loss center or store. Survey respondents also favored an expansion of services and products at current grocery stores, locally owned restaurants and greenhouses or nurseries.

The commission recently applied for a grant to set up a city loan fund for Wellston entrepreneurs who may not be able to get bank loans. "This way the city can aggressively loan out money to people who say, 'Hey, I want to start up a business,'" Fry says.

If the grant is approved, these startup businesses will be able to partner with the Voinovich Center's Small Business Development Center for consulting services and other business assistance. "We feel it's even a more integral part, beyond the market study, to be involved in the implementation part of the plan," Hoy says.

ILGARD and the commission realize that an "if you build it they will come" attitude may not be enough to spark a complete downtown revitalization. The commission also is working to develop a major downtown event every month that would bring in more consumers. Both the University of Rio Grande and Holzer Clinic are developing such events for early 2005, Carey says.

Similarly, the commission has applied for funding to turn the old Louvee Theatre into a community or teen center and to remodel a downtown lot for a weekly farmers' market.

For now it's the waiting game. As the Wellston commission and ILGARD wait for word on grant money, they reflect on the work they've put in over the course of the year. If nothing else, the town realizes it has a future.

"With Sen. Carey and ILGARD, we see there's hope for Wellston," Webber says. "It's encouraging for us." Hoy is optimistic, too. "My guess is in the coming year they'll have some grants that come through and they'll be getting some of these new businesses," she says.

Carey says he's pleased with the commission's work and the townspeople's input. "I wanted the community to take the lead, and it has been a grassroots effort," he says. "Hopefully it'll be a model for other towns like Wellston that are facing similar problems."

Marisa Palmieri, BSJ '05, is a student writer for Ohio Today.

Related links:

Wellston Forum

The Voinovich Center for Leadership and Public Affairs