Local officials and owners of the new Segoku Hibachi Sushi Express in North Vernon celebrate a ribbon cutting launching the new downtown business earlier this month.
Photo provided by North Vernon Main Street
NORTH VERNON — What do you think of downtown North Vernon? The city’s Main Street organization wants to know.
North Vernon Main Street has launched a transformational strategies survey asking residents and visitors a series of questions about the city’s downtown — what they like and what they don’t. The survey will help guide the local Main Street chapter’s future efforts, said director Anna Walker.
“Part of what state accreditation offers is for us to have this opportunity to be led through the workshop,” Walker said. “The survey itself is asking for that public input — as you see North Vernon, what are the things you experience as a citizen, and if you are outside the community, what do you experience as a visitor … and how would you like things to be different in the future, how would you like them to be better?”
People interested in taking the survey can do so through May 31, and Walker said the results will be shared with the North Vernon Main Street board in June.
Working with the state Main Street organization, the local group will use the survey results to develop strategies to help further the mission of revitalizing the city’s downtown. The process also is a step toward a long-term goal for North Vernon Main Street to gain national accreditation.
Walker said the survey results are valuable because they are “unique market” responses taken from people who know the community well while also including impressions from people who may only visit occasionally.
North Vernon Main Street has only been accredited since January 2022, but Walker said she’s been pleased with what’s happened since, even as a major street and infrastructure project closed or limited traffic on Walnut Street for many months.
“We have built momentum,” she said. “We were able to have seven events last year that engaged our community and brought them downtown, and those went over really well. We were very pleased with the turnout.”
And while she said Main Street can’t take credit for business investment, she noted that several new businesses have opened in recent months. The most recent of those was earlier this month when Segoku Hibachi Sushi Express opened its doors after a ribbon cutting ceremony.
Meanwhile, North Vernon Main Street is continuing its sponsorship of events drawing people downtown. The next of those will be Taste of Summer on Saturday, May 27 — the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend.
That event will include a breakfast prepared and served by Jennings County High School culinary arts students at Stellar Plaza from 8 to 11 a.m. and a vendor market coordinated by North Vernon Main Street that will run from 8 a.m. until noon.
