Main Street Clinton lauded for community transformation, business recruitment, Mansell named Main Street Hero

By Sherry Lucas    

Main Street Clinton picked up a trio of awards at the recent Mississippi Main Street Association Annual Awards Luncheon in Jackson, including one that salutes the organization’s overall success since its 2007 start.

“That’s what I consider our arrival award,” Main Street Clinton Program Director Tara Lytal said of Main Street Clinton’s Outstanding Community Transformation Award. The comprehensive award acknowledges that the program has achieved a successful, preservation-based downtown revival.

“It represents the nineteen years of work put in to revitalize downtown Clinton,” Lytal said, with attractive facades, a lovely streetscape, 95 percent occupancy and the absence of any deteriorating buildings.

“It definitely represents many years of work, certainly by our staff, but also by people who have served on our board and also people who have served on our committees.”

Main Street Clinton Board President Mel Logan accepted the award. Logan and her husband, Rob, have lived in Clinton 42 years, raised four children here and now welcome a new generation to the Main Street Clinton mission with their oldest son serving on the board.

“We have seen Main Street and our Olde Towne go from just vacant to the point where it’s our core, it’s our heartbeat now,” Logan said. “I was just so pleased with the recognition. It helps courting businesses, it helps our economy.

“You always need to build on what’s unique in your community,” she said. “That’s what we’ve all worked to do.”

Main Street Clinton’s 2025 Properties and Possibilities Showcase won the award for Outstanding Business Retention or Recruitment Program. The event, hosted by Hillman Commons, invited realtors, investors and businesses with an interest in Clinton to find out more about available retail space and buildings, and connect directly with property owners and realtors. Between 15 and 20 people came to inquire about the possibilities in Clinton, Main Street Clinton Economic Committee Chairman John Holder said.

Building on that success, the committee plans another such event this year, perhaps calling it the Properties and Possibilities Tour and using the Olde Towne Depot’s train to take people to available locations, Holder said.

“I anticipate there will continue to be at least an annual event,” he added, that shows Clinton’s wonderful qualities and how businesses thrive here. “In my opinion, there has never been a better time to invest in Clinton.”

The Clinton Courier owner/publisher Clay Mansell won a special award, Main Street Hero, for outstanding community leadership and commitment to downtown and the Main Street Clinton program. Mansell pronounced it “the coolest award I have on my shelf.”

Mansell has been on the Main Street Clinton’s board since its inception and has served about a decade as its treasurer. He launched The Clinton Courier with partners Ryan and Stephanie Tracy in 2010, after the Clinton News closed, to fill the local information gap with a positive, community-focused voice.

The paper fits the Main Street model of building up communities, he said, praising Main Street Clinton as an integral part of town life with a laser focus on improvement.

“The proof is in the pudding,” Mansell said. “If you look at what Clinton’s main street looked like fifteen years ago and what it looks like today, it’s not even comparable.”

Though Mansell came to the task with no prior newspaper experience, he did have knowledge in hand.

“I’d always been self-employed, and I knew what a small business in town needed in the way of marketing,” he said. That informed their model. Print is the main focus, with 9,000 free copies available for pickup at 125 locations. They’ve embraced the digital possibilities, too, with email blasts, a fully functioning and frequently updated website and strong social media presence.

“We have just made the paper an integral part of Clinton. Unless you’re under a rock, it’s hard to miss it.”