Melissa Voss | Editor
Over the past couple weeks, downtown Hartford has gotten a lighting change on Main Street. Thanks to the work of Downtown Hartford, Inc., Hartford has new lamp posts decorated with hanging floral baskets and downtown market signs that line the sides of downtown. The town of Hartford hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony on July 2 in honor of the new addition and Rickie Kunzweiler, president of Downtown Hartford, Inc was honored as the ribbon.
Downtown Hartford, Inc. was created with the vision of honoring and preserving the past by improving the appearance and redevelopment of downtown Hartford. According to Kunzweiler, it is based on State of Main, a national program that focuses on bringing a town’s main street back to life.
“Hartford is a good example, where Main Street died off and everyone goes to the interstate,” said Kunzweiler.
Downtown Hartford, Inc. has four key focuses: organization, design, economic development, and promotion. The streetlamps and hanging floral baskets were part of the design and Kunzweiler stated that the members of Downtown Hartford, Inc wanted to make sure they make a nod to the past.
“We want to make sure we honor our history and our heritage.”
The city made plans to place new lighting downtown earlier this year and Downtown Hartford Inc. saw this as an opportunity to work on improving Main Street’s design.
“We were at the right place at the right time. They were going to redo Main Street’s lighting and instead of doing that, we asked the city if we could change it to historical lighting.”
The streetlamps and baskets were only the beginning of what Downtown Hartford, Inc has in store for Main Street. The organization will be continuing to work through 2025 and they have continuous phases of projects.
Lastly, Kunzweiler emphasizes the great appreciation and support that the Hartford City Council and community has given Downtown Hartford Inc. in order to revitalize downtown Hartford.
“Our city council has been so supportive of us and allowed us to be involved in this process. We could not have done it without Craig and the city employees. They have done everything we asked and we know it is not an easy undertaking when you are putting in lighting. The city was more than welcome to help us.”