Downtown Onancock's future shaped by community

Submitted article

Onancock Main Street Initiative

Onancock residents once again were writing on the Historic Onancock School walls, but this time it wasn't lessons on a chalkboard.

Instead, more than 100 Onancock residents scrawled their priorities for the town’s future in a paper-covered room during events Oct. 22 and 23.

The events were the next part of a data-gathering effort by the Onancock Main Street board. Information already has been collected through written and online surveys of residents, tourists and the business community. The results will help inform next steps in the Main Street process and what areas of focus the community thinks are important to revitalize Onancock’s downtown.

"People contribute ideas in different ways," said Barbara Johnsen, part of the Onancock Main Street Initiative. "We wanted to give residents more options to express their opinions about what they want to see in downtown Onancock."

The Onancock Main Street Initiative board held a community engagement open house during which people could drop in throughout the evening and express their opinions, learn more about the program, and talk one-to-one with two state experts: Kyle Meyer, from Virginia Main Street and Staci Martin from Virginia tourism.

In addition to answering questions by writing with colorful pens on the walls, residents participated in discussion table focused on topics to further drill down on preferences expressed in the surveys.

Each attendee was handed a pingpong ball when they registered and had the chance to "vote" by dropping their ball into one of six jars representing priorities for the downtown area that had been identified in the previous surveys. Of the six — wayfinding/signage, art, landscaping, empty buildings, parking and Wi-Fi — empty buildings ranked the highest at the end of the evening, followed closely by the need for better Wi-Fi and wayfinding signage.

Over the two days, Meyer also facilitated small group session with key stakeholders in the town, including the town council, the wharf, nonprofits and others. He also led a discussion with business owners.

“The Main Street process is inclusive. It takes time and different methods to make sure everyone can voice his or her opinion,” said Janet Fosque, a Onancock Main Street Initiative board member. “Over the next few months, we’ll distill the information we’ve gathered, and report our findings back to the community. Partnerships with residents and businesses will then be critical to carrying out the community’s vision.”

Interested community members can send questions and join a mailing list by emailing onancockmainstreet@gmail.com.