First Main Street facade check presented
By KATHRYN MARTINEZ news1@kilgorenewsherald.com

Jim Collins, of Professional Builders and Remodelers, of Minden, accepts a check from Merlyn Holmes, president of Kilgore's Main Street Advisory Committee. The check represents the first completed facade improvement project since the inception of the city's Main Street Program. Fallon Burns, Main Street manager and and Bill Woodall, at right, owner of the building at 206 Commerce Street, look on.

Kilgore Main Street officials finally presented the first check for a completed façade improvement project.

Bill Woodall, grant recipient, accepted a check for $5,010 - or 88 percent of the maximum possible reimbursement. Main street will reimburse as much as fifty percent of the cost of a facade make-over in the Main Street project area. Reimbursement amounts are based on "points" after plans are reviewed by the Main Street design committee.

Woodall said receiving the check was gratifying and a great relief, after four-and-a-half months of renovation.

"I was going to re-do the front of the building anyway," Woodall said, " but I was going to do it on the cheap. That check let me do the facade the way it needed to be done."

The building is more than a century old and is thought to be either the oldest or the secondoldest commercial building in Kilgore. The building had settled and brick was falling away from one corner of the second floor so the brick had to be repointed. An opening was cut and an overhead door was installed along with matching cedar walk doors.

Fallon Burns, Main Street manager, is happy with the way the building at 206 Commerce turned out. She is also please to finally see the Main Street Program credited with a completed project.

"Handing that check over was exciting and rewarding for the Main Street Program," Burns said. "It is a great feeling to know city council and the Main Street program has actually put money into downtown."

For more information on the Main Street program or façade improvement grants contact burns at Kilgore City Hall 903- 984-5081.