Saline is moving forward with the next steps in the Michigan Main Street program’s ‘four-point approach’ for an invigorated downtown.

The Main Street Four-Point Approach to downtown revitalization is “a community-driven, grass-roots, comprehensive strategy, that’s been proven throughout the United States since the 1980’s, when the National Trust for Historic Preservation realized that a program was needed to preserve and enhance our downtowns across the country,” according to information about the program.

It is intended to improve downtowns by teaching participants better organization, promotion, economic restructuring and design. Saline is one of 10 communities chosen across the state for the program.

Last week, Donna Ann Harris, a principal of Heritage Consulting Inc. of Philadelphia spent six hours downtown with a group of about 20 volunteers.

She had this to say about her visit in a blog post that was shared with AnnArbor.com: “Saline is fortunate to have a considerable stock of handsome and well-restored historic commercial buildings arrayed along both Route 12 and North and South Ann Arbor streets.”

Saline’s downtown encompasses Lewis to Harris, Henry to McKay and includes the former Union School, City Hall and the fire department, plus about 50 businesses.

Saline wants to ensure that it "maintains a thriving, vibrant downtown district that gives us a sense of place and sense of pride so many of us desire,” Cindy Czubko, chairman of the Saline Business Development Association, said previously.

Residents, the Saline Downtown Merchants Association, the City of Saline, the Saline Business Development Association, and the Saline Area Chamber of Commerce are involved in the effort. At the end of the year, Saline plans to apply to Michigan Main Street to become a designated community.

“I was there to help them develop their fundraising efforts and explain to a larger group what the four Main Street committees do,” Harris said. “We also talked about how Main Street organizations budget and develop work plans to manage the work of the volunteers who implement projects.”

Through the Michigan Main Street Associate Level, volunteers have visited other Michigan towns to see how the Main Street Approach works.

Lisa Allmendinger is a reporter with AnnArbor.com. She can be reached at lisaallmendinger@annarbor.com. For more Saline stories, visit our Saline page.