At the regularly scheduled Board of Aldermen meeting on Tuesday, January 20, the City of Quitman officially voted to re-join the Main Street Program.
The discussion started at the meeting on December 2, 2025, when Beth Rainey with the Main Street Association provided a presentation to the board. The board was able to ask questions about the program to gain more clarity.
Quitman was previously part of the program and abolished it after a couple of years, so the meeting was beneficial to help them better understand how the program is designed and operates.
“I think it was productive,” informed Mayor Chris Reeves after the initial meeting. “There are benefits to it. You can get some benefits and help from Main Street on grants and programs. It would work closely with the Chamber of Commerce and could help take some of the weight off the chamber as far as event planning. We would still rely on volunteers to get stuff done and make things happen.”
The program has three tiers that each offer different incentives. There is only a yearly fee of $500 for basic tier that Quitman would be in.
Although they spoke with a representative for the Main Street Program in December, they didn’t want to make an official decision until they were able to speak with Mississippi Power Commercial Project Development Manager Tomeka Durr-Wiley at the January 20 meeting.
Different programs offered by Mississippi Power Commercial Project Development are able to work alongside the Main Street Program, and they wanted to have a full understanding of all the possible benefits.
Durr-Wiley introduced the board to a variety of beneficial programs to help promote economic growth and development. Some of the different programs she mentioned that could provide incentives to businesses include building improvement and mixed-use development where businesses could receive a grant up to $100,000 to redevelop a commercial building that has been vacant, franchise development where they reimburse 50 percent of a franchise fee up to $50,000 to start a franchise, and mentioned a residential development program that has offered a $25,000 grant for single family dwellings; however, she mentioned that they are discussing doing away with the residential development program. Other programs she mentioned that could benefit businesses downtown include a Small Business Redevelopment Rate Router that allows anyone who moves into a commercial space that has been vacant for at least six months and has at least two full-time employees to get 15 percent off the base rate of their power bill for two years and energy efficiency rebates where businesses could get up to $30,000 rebate to make certain improvements to become more energy efficient.
Other incentives that were offered to benefit the city would be a market analysis where they are able to look at the town details and develop a propensity report that the city could use to help market the city to different business possibilities. They would also work with the city on inventory of available spaces and help market those spaces to businesses looking for somewhere to go.
Another thing she mentioned involved outdoor lighting. She discussed how they have a group that comes out and helps design and change the outdoor lighting to help upgrade them and that they could be maintained through a maintenance agreement.
After hearing about the different programs and incentives offered, Reeves wanted to make sure that they would work well with Main Street.
Reeves inquired, “Our next topic is Main Street, so tell us how your programs are designed to work with Main Street or how y’all are set up to work with Main Street. Would it be beneficial if we were a member of Main Street to help the business owners to participate in these programs?”
Durr-Wiley replied, “I do serve on the State of Mississippi Main Street Board as well. I work very closely within our service area that has Main Street programs all in our communities. Anytime somebody opens a business, I always try to make sure that those Main Street directors bring me into the loop so that I can offer what programs that’s available. Not only that, but I also customize different things because what works for your community may not work for someone else. I can work on how we can customize different programs to help support as well. In my involvement at the state level, and I know working in my communities that have Main Street programs, I know what’s working in their communities that you all may be able to replicate here.”
Eventually, Reeves introduced the Main Street Program to the board to request that they make a final decision on whether or not to re-join the program.
Reeves stated, “Our next topic is considering joining Main Street. We had a presentation a month ago about the benefits. I wanted to wait until Ms. Durr-Wiley could come for y’all to make a decision on whether you think it’s worth the $500 a year for us to join Main Street again to see if we can make that program work for Quitman. I would propose that we just join it right now. We’re probably going to have to do an amended budget here in the next couple of months. I think we will have to to get our numbers right. At that time, we can possibly look at putting some funding into the Main Street program. For right now, I would like to ask that we just take the step of joining. I think there are benefits. I think that for $500 a year, it’s worth that. After that, we can decide how deep we want to take it.”
Durr-Wiley spoke up and asked, “If you all join, who is going to be my point of contact for that?”
To answer her, Reeves informed her how he would like for the program to function and who she would need to speak with by explaining, “I want our Main Street to work with the chamber. The chamber president would probably be our Main Street Director, and we would just kind of let those two organizations work together. That’s my thoughts on it. For right now, we would make the chamber president probably the point of contact. First, we have to join. Anybody want to take any action on that or have any other comments or concerns?”
Alderwoman Bridgett Peters stated, “I think it would be a good idea.”
Alderwoman Monica Fuller wanted to clarify and asked, “So right now we’re just going to be a member?”
Reeves answered, “Right. We’ll just join, and then when we do our amended budget, we can see how much funding we can give. So like their secretary for the chamber, my thoughts are hopefully we can split the cost of whatever the secretary costs so that she would be the secretary for both the chamber and Main Street. Then, we would have a committee for the Main Street organization that would pretty much be members of the chamber. It doesn’t have to be, but it could be. That’s something we can address down the road after we join and once we get it rolling, if y’all decide to do it.”
Alderman Steve Neely then asked, “So joining doesn’t obligate us to hire someone? I was thinking, from what I recall, if we join Main Street, we had to hire a director.”
Reeves explained, “If you go to the network level, that upper level, then you’re required to hire a director. At the base level, it’s all volunteer. It doesn’t have to be funded or anything like that.”
The motion to join was made by Peters and seconded by Fuller and passed unanimously.
