Town & Trails Coalition Focuses on Promoting Businesses Along Armstrong, Redbank Valley Trails

Ron Wilshire

Ron Wilshire

Published May 27, 2018 4:27 am
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EAST BRADY, Pa. (EYT) — Cathy McCollom, of McCollom Development Strategies, LLC, led the Towns & Trails Coalition meeting on May 17, focusing on marketing and promoting the towns and businesses along the Armstrong and Redbank Valley Trails.

Strategies to attract new businesses and to grow existing ones were presented. Handouts with relevant information were made available, along with copies of town brochures and trail and river maps.

A brief slideshow illustrated past and present projects by the Towns & Trails teams that included town brochures, an outdoor mural, building façade improvements, and a variety of signage projects.  

The team is currently working on trail town kiosks that will be placed at five locations in towns or at trailheads. The kiosks provide information on local trails, businesses, and the towns, along with providing a community bulletin board.

McCollom noted that an online toolkit is being developed to guide interested parties through the process of accessing needs and developing plans for trail town development.  

The toolkit can be found at townsandtrailstoolkit.com. The site is currently being revamped but is available for use.  

Another resource noted is a recently developed video called Towns and Trails: An Opportunity to Prosper. It can be found at www.redbankren.org under videos on the Trail Town page. Also recommended is the site called SaveYour.Town. Users can subscribe to receive weekly emails that address issues common to most small towns.

Meeting attendees represented municipal officials from Clarion, East Brady, Kittanning, Ford City, Sligo, New Bethlehem, and Brookville. Trail and river users and advocates, trail organizations, local residents and current and potential business owners also attended, along with the PA Great Outdoors.

Prior to the main meeting, one on one meetings with local businesses were held to answer specific questions and to provide guidance.

For additional information, contact ebadc68@gmail.com or csm@mccollomds.com.

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