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Pictured celebrating the City of Hartwell being named the Georgia Downtown of the Year are (first row, from left) Main Street volunteers Mary Lynn Johnson, Nancy Butler, Deb Kulcsar, Wendy Patterson, Carol Beazley, Diane Evans, Bo Bynum, Gretchen McClymont; (second row, from left) Main Street Coordinator Peggy Vickery, City Manager Jon Herschell and Main Street volunteersTammy Hutchinson, Nancy Hardigree, Helene Brown, Pat Harper, Sandra Baker; (third row, from left) Main Street volunteers
The City of Hartwell has been named Downtown of the Year as they were bestowed the Outstanding Community Transformation/Downtown of the Year Award from the Georgia Downtown Association (GDA).
Mayor Brandon Johnson, along with Jason Ford, director of economic and community development, City Manager Jon Herschell and other city officials and volunteers attended the 2023 Georgia Downtown Association Conference at the Canton Theater where they received the coveted award on behalf of Hartwell.
The award is given for outstanding achievement in transforming traditional downtowns in Georgia. Johnson said the past, and current transformations that have occurred in Hartwell led to the city receiving the award.
“All the things that have happened in Hartwell – the revitalization of downtown, the depot, the new businesses, that didn’t just happen,” Johnson said. “You have to put together a plan [and then] you have to execute that day over day, month over month, – not only with the city council but more importantly with a group of volunteers who pour their hearts into it.
“After 10 years of really, really focusing, we’re now a small town, a city that people come to and say, ‘this is nice, we need to do what Hartwell is doing.’ Ten years ago, even in the last five years, we would go to other places and we’d say, ‘How did you do this? How did you get this done? How did you get that done?’ Now people are coming to Hartwell saying, ‘We’ve heard that y’all have done an amazing job. We want to see what you’re doing, and we want to replicate some of the programs. It’s really cool now be able to be a mentor to other communities. Getting a reward like this is, quite frankly, validation that what we’ve done has just worked.”
Ford said around 30 local businesses have opened in the downtown area in the past three years and listed the revitalization of the old train depot and Railway Street Park as other improvements.
“We have public art and murals that are just beautiful, that bring the town alive,” Ford said. “I’d like to say that the public art and the flowers downtown breathe life into the historic buildings. And we’ve created this living space as opposed to just a city.”
In his five years as city manager, Herschell said he, the city and the group of volunteers have focused on “making downtown Hartwell the best it can be.”
“We started out with a major renovation of Depot Street and that culminated into private investment and job creation. We started the rural zone program and that helped investors and private investment come into the City of Hartwell and downtown Hartwell,” Herschell said. “This award reflects hard work by the city, the leadership, the mayor and council, our volunteers in the Main Street Program, our DDA board, and also the small business owners that believed in Hartwell, that saw an opportunity and invested in Hartwell.”
“The numbers are astounding,” Herschell explained. “From the rural zone we track investment and job creation and it’s just incredible to see this town blossom. We’ve been saying it for the last couple years, and now the Downtown Association of Georgia recognizes all the hard work that’s been put into making downtown Hartwell such an awesome place.”
Consideration for the award began through an application process, but according to Herschell the city was proactive, inviting a number of Main Street directors from around the state to conduct training sessions and also to showcase what the city has done.
“Members of the Downtown Association Board were there,” he said, “and they were just really impressed.”
Ford said the city’s transformation occurred, in large part, because of volunteers.
“We have around 50 volunteers who give their time and their talent to Hartwell Main Street and none of it would be possible without them.”
Herschell described how and why so many people worked for years to improve and revitalize downtown Hartwell.
“When we had our meeting last week I asked about 40 volunteers there, I asked, ‘How many people have been involved with this organization for 10 years?’ And about half of them attending raised their hands. There’s a lot of people who have been part of this program for a long, long time. They’ve seen downtown when there was 80 percent vacancy rate. They’ve seen downtown Hartwell go from ‘worst’ to ‘first.’ They have worked tirelessly. This award reflects the volunteers that have really put their heart and soul into this program.
“[The award] vindicates all the hard work of our city staff, and our leadership, our volunteers and our business owners, it vindicates that investment, that time, that effort because it’s been a long time coming.
Herschell also said the award hits home as Moultrie, where he grew up, won the award last year. Following some good-humored boasting from his father, who still resides in Moultrie, Herschell said he proclaimed that Hartwell would win the next year.
“Dad! We did it!,” Herschell said.