Boosting economic activity and making downtown more vibrant is the goal of the new Tara Community Working Group.
Council approved the draft terms of reference for the group at Monday’s regular meeting.
A staff report says the working group will be a platform for business and community stakeholders, and municipal staff to talk about economic development and revitalization.
The priority will be business attraction and retention, increasing Tara’s capacity to compete, and developing a vibrant downtown.
Municipal staff will find grants to support the group’s goals in 2025. Some might include the Spruce the Bruce grant from Bruce County or a Community Foundation Grey-Bruce Community Grant.
Back in late March, a Chesley Community Working Group was created to boost that village’s economy and downtown area.
Since then, staff say they have received comments from Tara residents who want to support economic development and beautification through projects like Christmas lights and banners.
They’ll meet regularly to come up with ideas and sometimes advise council. They may even form sub-groups to work on specific goals.
They’ll also work to get the community involved in economic development projects.
Tara’s riverside downtown has a number of businesses including a few restaurants, a couple of convenience stores, hardware store, bridal shop, art shop, a number of occupied office spaces, public swimming pool, post office, bank, auto repair shop and a couple of other services including massage therapy. There are a few unoccupied spaces as well.
One of the priorities for the group will be to identify underused commercial space and come up with plans to fill them, in cooperation with property owners.
The plan is to also create a vacant commercial space listing on Arran-Elderslie’s website and a vacant commercial space marketing package.
Beautification projects might include murals, banners and benches, or new trash cans among other things.
The Tara Downtown Revitalization Budget is $6,500 for 2024.