What started as a group of concerned city officials and business owners is now an active organization that has partnered with the UW-Extension and Waupaca County Economic Development Corporation (WCEDC).
The newly created Manawa Revitalization Committee met last month and set some short-term, achievable goals that will keep the city moving into a prosperous future.
Mike Koles, UW-Extension Community Development Educator, and David Thiel, WCEDC Executive Director, helped the Manawa group set three goals:
• Downtown spruce up effort.
• Basic market analysis
• Take inventory of Manawa business spaces for sale/rent and enter data into the Locate In Wisconsin website.
The website, locateinwisconsin.com, provides comprehensive information on buildings and land in Wisconsin that meet specific, searchable criteria, as well as a data snapshot of every city in the state.
Investors, businesses and entrepreneurs can use it to locate properties for future business expansion. The website is operated by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation.
Dale Ferg, of Coldwell Banker, shared a complete list of businesses and buildings that are currently available. He is looking to update the list with any rentals and open land for sale. Having this comprehensive list available on the website will provide great exposure and attract business to the community.
The group also watched a slideshow of pictures taken of the downtown showing the strengths and weaknesses of the buildings. The slideshow included the hanging flower baskets that were part of the sprucing up effort.
The group plans to meet with the Little Wolf High School tech education teacher, Daniel Koehler in August. The goal is to have him coordinate an effort with the students to build benches with flower boxes to be placed around the community. This would not only beautify the area, but build pride among the students.
A market analysis is in the works that will be sent out to the community to reveal what habits and needs our consumers have.
More information will available during a future meeting.