Summitville tries for a comeback

By Aleasha Sandley, Herald Bulletin Staff Writer

November 16, 2008 08:46 pm

— Doug King has seen businesses come and go from Summitville’s Main Street during his 25 years as owner of King’s Service Center.
Mostly they have gone.
Along the street, which stretches between the north and south town limits, lies downtown Summitville, but a large part of the old brick storefronts are empty, once home to small-town businesses that couldn’t make it work.
King remembers growing up in Summitville, when the downtown had shoe, clothing, hardware and furniture stores, as well as two gas stations. His mother owned a restaurant in town, King’s Lunch, it, along with the other businesses slowly left town.
“This was actually a pretty thriving community back then, but you got people who wouldn’t keep their money in town,” King said. “I just gradually seen all those businesses close and go out. We’re struggling like everybody else.”
But lifelong Summitville resident Dee Amos has been working since 2004 to tip the scales in favor of the little town.
Amos co-founded Summitville’s Main Street organization, which works to secure grants and raise funds to help beautify the city and bring back lost business.
“What it all boils down to is that our downtown has been neglected for many many years,” she said. “The downtown looks really bad, and a lot of the businesses have left and the streets are horrible. We plan on trying to revitalize that downtown area and bring in new businesses and make sure our downtown does not die away.”
Amos and other Summitville volunteers, like Tom Marshall, Rick Tomilson and Town Council member J.C. Hendricks, recently received a $817,200 grant from the Indiana Department of Transportation to redo Main Street in the core of downtown from Walnut Street on the north to Indiana Avenue on the south. The grant will help pay for a new street, curbs and sidewalks.
“We were told we’re the only new project (INDOT) took on this year and that our project looks very promising, very good for our downtown,” Amos said.
Summitville volunteers have been holding fundraisers in hopes of bringing in the 20 percent needed to match the INDOT grant. If all goes well, the project is expected to start in 2011.
The Main Street organization recently applied for another grant for street lighting and streetscaping but hasn’t heard any word back on that one, Amos said.
Despite the town’s business loss over the past several years, it has seen new families move in and an increase in children in its school system, Amos said. Summitville recently renovated seven apartments in an old downtown building for limited income tenants, and the south end of Main Street is lined with nicely kept homes.
“If we don’t take pride within our community, we can’t expect other people to come in and do the same,” she said.
Although the town has several businesses that have remained there for the long haul — R&R Engineering started 40 years ago in Summitville’s downtown and has since built a large base on the south end of town — it hasn’t seen much new business in recent years.
An exception to the rule lies on the north end of Main Street, where Majestic Productions set up shop 12 years ago in a building that is a stark contrast to the rest of the old downtown storefronts. Majestic, which performs lighting and production management for concerts, television and corporate events, might seem a little out of place in Summitville, but it has been a good neighbor, business owners say.
“It’s a small town, it’s safe,” Majestic Vice President Jon Weir said. “We don’t really worry about vandalism. You get to know the lady at the post office. Everybody kind of knows each other to some extent.”
Majestic moved to Summitville when its headquarters in Anderson changed ownership and the company needed to find space fast. Its home base location isn’t too important, as most of the designers, programmers and consultants who work there perform their jobs out of state anyway, Weir said.
Carey Fisher, vice president at R&R Engineering, said the business has been able to thrive in Summitville because of the townspeople.
“It’s the people that we have found probably the most appealing,” Fisher said. “The type of folks that are hardworking and have good family values.”
The plant, which employs 46 workers, started its South Main Street facility in 1995 and asked to be re-incorporated into Summitville once the operations were moved from the downtown plant. The business has tried to keep close ties with the town, employing its workers, sponsoring its sports teams and donating to its causes, Fisher said.
“Summitville has been a good place for us to be, and we want it to continue to thrive,” she said. “Small communities are most important. I think that’s where you find a lot of character.”
For King, the sense of community is what has kept him in the place where he was born and raised, and the community has kept his auto repair business thriving.
“We work on about anything,” he said. “Tractors, cars, trucks, lawnmowers. There isn’t too many places around here anymore where you can pull into the gas pump and have to wait for someone to fill up their lawnmower.”

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