Expert: Small towns should take bold, small steps

RITZVILLE — Take small steps and don’t be afraid to just do something.

“We’re trained to create and sit on committees,” said Deb Brown, a consultant who helps small town residents revive and revitalize their towns. “Take action, show a difference.”

“Just do it,” she added.

Brown, who currently lives in Webster City, Iowa (population 8,070), spoke to an assembled group of business people, small town leaders, and others at the Reviving Downtowns Workshop, sponsored by the Adams County Development Council, in Ritzville on Wednesday.

As for what small-town residents should just do, Brown gave simple examples — from the community that let students and artists loose to paint light poles to the towns in Pennsylvania and South Dakota that used gussied up storage sheds to host small businesses in a city park to the mobile trucks making a circuit of midwestern towns selling good as varied as food, clothing, or veterinary services.

“Every town has street poles,” she said. “Painting them brings people together to share arts and culture.”

Even the smallest towns can promote themselves as destinations, Brown said.

“If you have three ‘like’ stores — not similar, just alike — now you’re a destination, and you can promote yourself,” she said. “Look at your community with fresh eyes.”

Brown also advocates that people dealing with problems typical to small towns — empty buildings, weed or junk-filled lots — “lead with kindness.”

“Send a thank-you letter to someone who owns a business in your city,” she said.

While kindness often works, Brown said residents looking to spruce up their small towns should not be afraid to change local law to encourage the sale of buildings or land to people who will use them.

She gave the example of Centerville, Iowa, which passed an ordinance fining downtown building owners $1,000 per-year for every year a building was left unused for a commercial purpose or unsold to someone who put it to that use.

“How do you persuade a building owner? Go to the city council and change the code. Storage is not what downtown buildings are for,” she said.

“Towns are small enough to do that,” she said. “It’s easier than you think.”

Not every idea has to be original, and not every idea is going to work, Brown said. But don’t give up. Even the smallest of towns can find something that works.

“Communities across the world are doing fabulous things and you can steal their ideas,” she said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com.