ELKHART LAKE, WI (WHBL) - Sheboygan County now has a third community in the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation’s Connect Communities program. Elkhart Lake was selected to join the program this year, which already includes Plymouth and Sheboygan.
Connect Communities is designed to help a city, village, or county help revitalize or improve their business and downtown districts.
Clerk/Treasurer Jessica Rilley tells WHBL News the village was interested in joining to get help from the WEDC without having to put the necessary resources into the Main Street program. "This allows us to attend most of those training that are put on for a Main Street program with less of a cost to us and not having to have a dedicated staff person."
Rilley says the village hopes to achieve several goals with the services and information the program provides. One goal is to fill some of the few business spaces currently open. "Well we’re hoping that they will provide training sessions on ways we can help support the businesses we currently have and keep them in business, potentially make them go year round."
Another goal is to improve the use of wayside signage to bring people to Elkhart Lake. "We don’t really have good waysiding signs, and one of the things we have talked about is how can we effectively and efficiently drive customers to our downtown businesses using signage," says Rilley.
Rilley says the village will be in touch with a state program person in the next several weeks to assess where changes can be made.