Newport and Paris have joined Main Street Arkansas’s Arkansas Downtown Network (ADN) program, Main Street Arkansas Director Greg Phillips announced today. Main Street Arkansas is a program area of the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

“We are very excited that Newport and Paris have joined the Arkansas Downtown Network of cities working to bring new vitality into their historic commercial cores,” Department of Arkansas Heritage Director Stacy Hurst said. “As members of the ADN, the downtown revitalization programs in Newport and Paris will have access to Main Street Arkansas’s quarterly trainings, organizational assistance, limited technical assistance from Main Street staff members and access to the Main Street resource center.”

Main Street Arkansas provides technical assistance and design services to help create economic development in the state’s downtown areas. The Main Street approach to downtown revitalization focuses on four areas: design, economic restructuring, organization and promotion.

Cities currently involved in Main Street Arkansas are Batesville, Blytheville, Conway, Dumas, El Dorado, Eureka Springs, Helena-West Helena, Jonesboro, Downtown Little Rock Partnership, Little Rock’s South Main Street (SoMa), Osceola, Ozark, Paragould, Rogers, Russellville, Searcy, Siloam Springs, Texarkana and West Memphis. Members of Main Street’s Arkansas Downtown Network are Hardy, Pine Bluff, Heber Springs, Fort Smith, Morrilton, Rector, Monticello, Arkadelphia, Clarksville, Warren, Wynne, Forrest City, Malvern, Pocahontas, Newport and Paris. Other sponsors of the Main Street Arkansas program are Preserve Arkansas and the Arkansas Economic Development Commission. To learn more about Main Street Arkansas, visit mainstreetarkansas.com.

The Arkansas Historic Preservation Program is the agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage responsible for the identification, evaluation, registration and preservation of the state’s cultural resources. Other agencies in the department are the Arkansas Arts Council, the Delta Cultural Center in Helena, the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, the Old State House Museum, the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission and the Historic Arkansas Museum.