Reviving Rural Downtowns workshop coming to Ritzville

RITZVILLE — Some of the most creative minds in the state are gathering in Ritzville to brainstorm on ways to make a difference in the downtown districts across Washington.

The Reviving Rural Downtowns workshop is Sept. 21-22 in historic downtown Ritzville offers downtown district members, city council members, planning commissioners, economic developers or anybody interested in making a difference in their community the opportunity to generate ideas in a creative setting.

More than 120 people attended the inaugural workshop last year. They are expecting more this year as the word gets out.

“I’m a resident of Ritzville and there are a lot of us that served on the various community organizations in Ritzville with a passion for our historic buildings in the downtown,” Adams County Economic Development Council director Stephen McFadden said. “We got to talking and said why don’t we try and have a workshop. The development council partnered with the city of Ritzville and the chamber of commerce. We were working on a lineup (of speakers), when we turned to the Washington Main Street folks, their manager at the time said ‘You should open this up to all the small rural towns in eastern Washington at least because you’re talking about the same issues those small towns are dealing with.”

There is a wide range of topics on slate and a variety of speakers during the two-day workshop. The small community success stories are expected to be enlightening, McFadden said, as well as the social media discussion of Your Town’s App by Tim Fry of 468 Communications.

“We think the Your Town App is going to be a big deal,” McFadden said. “We will have version of that app made for Ritzville, so when people check in we’ll ask them to download the app, so they can see all of the points of interest in Ritzville as a live demonstration.”

The small communities success stories on Thursday will feature discussions by presenters from the towns of Dayton, Soap Lake and Palouse.

“They’re going to spend an hour talking about some great accomplishments they’ve had, even they, quote/unquote, are small,” McFadden said. “You have a great downtown in Moses Lake. A lot of the things we’re talking about fit Moses Lake, fit Ephrata, they fit Soap Lake and Quincy,” McFadden said.

Pre-conference workshops begin at 1 p.m. on Sept. 21 with discussions by Janet Rogerson and Lissa Kramer with the Washington State Historical Society. Their focus will be on the Heritage Capital Projects Fund, which includes a roundtable discussion. Terry Lawhead with the Washington Department of Commerce will address preparedness, recovery and continuity on Main Street.

The opening day keynote speaker is Tripp Muldrow of Arnett, Muldrow & Associates.

One benefit of the workshops held in Ritzville is to take advantage of the transformation behind this central Washington town’s downtown district.

Five individual structures in Ritzville are on the National Register of Historic Places, including The Burroughs House on Main Street; the Northern Pacific Railroad Depot; the Greene House on South Adams St.; the Ritzville Carnegie Library on West Main; and the Ritzville High School on Seventh Avenue.

The Burroughs House and the National Pacific Depot have both been ceded to the city and are maintained as museums by volunteers. The Ritzville Historic District is also listed on the register. The New Ritz Theatre, designed by northwest cinema architect Bjarne Moe, maintains the original architecture and seating arrangement designed in 1937. The three block area will be featured as part of a guided tour on the first day of the workshop.

“Last year, we had a little bit of everything,” Hansen said. “We had people from LaCrosse and talked about what they did. There’s just so many little nuggets that you can get from this thing.”

The theme of the day is, “Yes, your town matters,” and Sept. 22’s agenda focuses on how to make that happen with discussions by Kathleen Ryan, an assistant professor of Washington State University’s rural communities design institute. There will also be a grant writing panel led by Janet Rogerson and Lissa Kramer.

The second day will also highlight topics like promoting your town; demolition by neglect, lost community treasures.

Advanced online registration is required and can be done by going to www.brownpapertickets.com/event/2593927.

For more information call 509-331-2042 or email Stephen McFadden at stephenm@co.adams.wa.us