Four decades ago, Ronan’s Main Street was a bustling place, with grocery, clothing, furniture, hardware and drug stores, cafes and even a jewelry shop. But as small towns everywhere declined and box stores flourished, those Main Street businesses moved to the highway corridor or closed completely.

Whitney Liegakos and Katie Jo Elliott both grew up in the Mission Valley, and vividly remember their vibrant hometown. They want to bring it back – or at least a version of it that meets the needs of locals and is more attractive to tourists as well.

The two women, along with an engaged core of community members and Mission West Community Development Partners, are working hard to reinvigorate the town they love.

“Ronan is so unique – it feels like such a tight-knit community,” said Elliott, a real estate agent who is president of the Ronan Area Chamber of Commerce. “It just has such a good feel to it.”

Apparently, the Montana Department of Commerce thought so too. Ronan was among eight communities to receive $1.25 million grants through the Pilot Community Tourism Grant Program enacted by the 2023 Legislature. The grant is an affirmation that the community’s hard work and vision are beginning to pay off.

Their successful grant proposal, titled Building a Thriving Rural Region Through Placemaking, Downtown Revitalization and Strategic Tourism Infrastructure, was seeded by two previous projects. The Montana Main Street program provided $50,000 in 2022 to help the community develop a Downtown Master Plan. That project was spearheaded by the Ronan Revitalization committee, an arm of the Ronan Area Chamber of Commerce.

Mission West then leveraged Main Street dollars to apply for a $45,000 Rural Capacity Development Initiative from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Those funds were used to craft an economic development strategic plan.  

These two grants and the work that they helped the city, chamber and Mission West accomplish in the past two years gave the partners the mojo to apply for the Department of Commerce’s new pilot program.

“We realized that we met so much of the criteria. We have a plan in place, we have a group that meets regularly,” says Liegakos. “So Mission West pulled a call together, and ultimately the group decided, ‘let's give this a shot.’”

The Pilot Tourism Grant Program is unique, explains Brenna O'Sullivan-Fulks, director of Mission West’s Economic Development Center. Recipients who show success are eligible to receive an additional $1.5 million in funding for a total of $2.75 million over 60 months. Those dollars can be leveraged to bring in additional funds to complete projects that meaningfully contribute to community vitality.

Possibilities are apt to focus on objectives identified in the master plan, which was put together by KLJ Engineering with lots of community input reeled in via surveys, meetings and other pop-up events held during the past year.

The survey identifies downtown revitalization as the biggest community need. Residents want to see more entertainment and housing options, an expansion of local businesses, and better streets and sidewalks.

The five-year economic development strategy dovetails with the master plan, suggesting five areas of growth potential, including workforce retention, growth in ag and food production, access to financial resources, better transportation and infrastructure and growth in tourism.

“I would love to see downtown revitalized with a facelift and better signage, lighting, sidewalks, walkability and just making it even more welcoming than it is now so that we can get people to turn off of this busy highway corridor on their way through town,” said Liegakos, who heads the Ronan Revitalization Committee.

She points out that Ronan has many amenities, including a city park, eateries, bars, a brewery, popcorn shop and retail boutiques, as well as an abundance of events, including a brewfest, the Lake County Fair, Pioneer Days and a farmers’ market.

“But they're off that beaten path,” she said. “So, I think if we make the path more attractive, people will stop.”

Under the new grant, a steering committee will chart the course forward, according to O'Sullivan-Fulks. Membership includes stakeholders from the chamber, Ronan Revitalization, City Hall and Mission West. Regional partners representing Mineral and Sanders counties will also participate and hopefully find ways to use a similar formula to foster growth in their communities. 

The get-stuff-done committee

The Ronan Revitalization Committee, which has been at the forefront of this evolution, dates back to 2016, when an economic development assessment identified communication and collaboration as essential components of community growth. A small group of four of five people began to meet once a week at 7:30 a.m. to start the conversation.

“And before we knew it we had more like 20 people coming regularly, which in Ronan is a gigantic group of people,” recalls Liegakos. It morphed over time from Ronan Rumors, to the Downtown Business Committee to the Ronan Community Roundtable and finally landed on Ronan Revitalization. The group also was adopted by the chamber as a subcommittee, allowing it to gain fiscal backing and the stature to apply for grants.

Along the way, it also changed from a group that was exploring ways for local businesses and event promoters to support each other into what Liegakos describes as “a get-stuff-done committee.”

The focus, she adds, “has always been on Ronan and the core people here, the people that live and work here and have devoted their entire lives to this area. We want to give back to them.”

The process has also fostered collaboration between business leaders and city government. City Council members attend Revitalization Committee meetings and were very involved in the Main Street Master Plan and economic development roadmap. In fact, both were adopted as a combined report by the City Council at its most recent meeting July 24.

“You see small towns that are often siloed and everyone's working on their own projects,” says Elliott. “What could happen if you bring everybody together?”

Mentoring other small towns

The answer appears to be this grassroots uptick that O’Sullivan-Fulks hopes can inspire other rural communities in the region.

“As we go through the process, we're using Ronan as kind of the example, and then hopefully helping these other communities within Mission West’s three-county region (Mineral, Sanders and Lake) use some of this funding to leverage their own master plan,” she said. “So we’re kind of kick-starting things with Ronan, and as Ronan's getting going and further along in the process getting these other communities started.”

“It’s almost like a mentorship program,” Liegakos adds. “Us leading the charge, making mistakes, learning from them, and then passing those learned lessons on to other small communities. So, what an honor.”

Both Elliott and Liegakos are quick to credit O’Sullivan-Fulks and Mission West with writing grants and guiding stakeholders through the various programs.

“They've been the glue in all this,” says Elliott.

“When you look at partnerships, you can't get any better than the city, the Chamber of Commerce, and Mission West working together,” adds Liegakos. “I think if other communities could figure out how to leverage that and take advantage of bringing groups like ours together, they would see the same results.”

The next steps include meeting with the Department of Commerce to learn more about grant rules and expectations, officially forming the steering committee, and then charting the path forward.

“Our momentum is going in the right direction and we're only going to see positive results from here,” predicts Elliott. “It's hard to be patient though.”

“That's why a big win like this is so worth celebrating,” added Liegakos. “It is so rewarding.”