The cities of Hanford and Visalia both have thriving downtowns that have become the envy of other cities around the Central Valley.

Some Selma residents say they would like to see their own downtown become just as prosperous.

"We need someone to have a vision like they did for Hanford or Visalia," said Joan Nelson, who co-owns Designing Women in downtown Selma. "They started out with a smaller population also and they had vision and it worked."

Hanford was able to improve its downtown area largely due to its participation with National Trust Main Street, a program used by about 1,800 cities across the United States. The purpose of the program is to help communities preserve and revitalize their downtowns.

"They (National Trust) were seeing small towns disintegrate," Pam Madill, executive director of Main Street Hanford, said. "Being that downtowns are the hub of the community and community activity, that's why the program was started."

Hanford decided to go with the Main Street program seven years ago and has seen a big turnaround in its downtown.

"Basically we really follow the program to a tee in order to keep our downtown alive and vital and going in the right direction," Madill said.

The program is based on four points: marketing, design, economic restructuring and organization. Hanford has a committee for each of these areas.

The marketing committee puts on activities such as the Blues and Roots and Wine and Chocolate Tasting events to bring people into downtown. Hanford's Thursday Night Marketplace has become a big attraction, bringing in as many as 3,000 people every week.

"It encompasses a certified farmers market and other vendors on the street," Madill said. "We do this six months out of the year in an effort to bring people downtown. Many of our stores will stay open so that shopping is available to individuals attending the event."

Madill said that even if people don't shop that night, they will become more aware of the different stores downtown and may come back to shop at a different time.

"These events have certainly made members of the community and surrounding areas familiar with what we have downtown," Madill said.

The design committee is concerned with the beauty of Hanford's downtown and the preservation of historic buildings. In the last three years, the committee has given out around seven facade grants to help businesses keep their buildings looking nice.

"We also do paint programs at no cost to our store owners or property owners," Madill said. "We try to do about three of those a year."

Other beautification improvements downtown include a renovation of all the flower bulbs and the installation of new tree grates.

The economic and restructuring committee focuses on retaining businesses and trying to get new businesses to come downtown. Madill said that Hanford has been able to keep its building vacancies very low.

The organization committee watches the finances and does basically what its title says -- organizes.

Because there are only two paid employees in Hanford for the Main Street program, all of the committees are made up of volunteers. The actual program is paid for partly through the money generated from events. The rest of the money comes from the businesses.

"We are in a Business Improvement District, so all of our downtown businesses pay a double business tax license," Madill said.

Hanford's downtown businesses voted to pay the double tax. All of the money from this tax is guaranteed to stay within the downtown area.

Visalia's downtown businesses also pay an extra fee to help enhance their downtown. In 1963, the merchants got together and formed the organization Downtown Visalians, a non-profit, volunteer organization that now has more than 600 member businesses, professionals and associations located within its boundaries. The businesses are assessed a fee in addition to their annual business license, and this money is used strictly in the downtown area.

"Downtown Visalians primarily handles events, atmosphere and marketing," said Pam Melville, executive director of Downtown Visalia Alliance.

The group publishes parking maps, dining and shopping guides and a professional services guide. Downtown Visalians also sells gift certificates that can be used at over 140 downtown businesses, and parking permits that allow all-day parking in most two-hour slots.

Some of the events the group puts on to attract people downtown include Visalia's All Music Festival in July, Taste of Downtown Visalia in October, and the Candy Cane Lane Parade in early December. The group also sponsors Friday Nights Downtown, which features live music on the streets.

A second special benefit assessment district, known as the Downtown PBID, was formed in 1997 by property owners to help improve downtown Visalia. It has contributed over $3 million to downtown improvements since 1998.

"We pretty much have everyone with a stake in downtown involved and basically putting money into it," Melville said.

One of the PBID's main concerns for downtown is safety. In addition to regular police patrol, downtown Visalia has a 24-hour security bike patrol.

PBID also does a lot of work with the maintenance and continued beautification of downtown. Maintenance projects include steam cleaning the sidewalks, care of flower beds and graffiti removal within 24 hours. Public enhancements include more benches, new street signs and welcoming kiosks.

Another area that PBID delves into is economic development.

Information is collected and distributed about space available for viable tenants, and property-owner committees work to recruit new businesses, retain current businesses and encourage business expansion.

"There is some (business) turnover, but it's not rampant," Melville said. "Vacant store fronts aren't a major problem."

Melville said that the recent change in downtown Visalia has been a move from retail to a more restaurant driven environment. She said that the first high-end restaurant came to downtown Visalia around 10 years ago.

"One brave soul started a fine dining restaurant and it was so popular that other people paid attention," Melville said. "At the time, there was a higher proportion of retail. There were restaurants, but now the restaurants are a little bit stronger overall."

She said that new restaurants come to Visalia on a fairly regular basis and more of them are offering evening and nighttime meals.

"We have a nice wine lounge and a number of the restaurants have live entertainment one or two nights a week," Melville said.

Although downtown Visalia is thriving, Melville said that keeping it that way is an ongoing effort.

"We think about continual revitalization because there are always things we can do better," she said. "We're looking at some other events, adding more atmosphere to downtown. We're looking at getting a little more involved with parking management and business recruitment."

Hanford and Visalia's downtowns have become successful thanks to organizations formed specifically for that purpose. At one point, Selma had a similar association.

"Selma's downtown association just ceased to be," said Cindy Howell, executive director of the Selma District Chamber of Commerce. "There was no reason. That's been at least 10 years and there hasn't been a push to get one."

Howell said that the chamber has tried to fill the role that the downtown association left, but it's hard since they have a staff of only two.

"We do our best to represent businesses in the downtown and the outlying shopping centers," she said. "As Selma grows, that becomes more difficult."

For several years, the chamber organized a group of merchants and held a series of street fairs, much like farmers markets, hoping to promote their businesses. This was the first year they didn't hold the fairs due to dwindled interest from the merchants.

"It didn't take off, for instance, like Clovis as far as their farmers market," Howell said. "The interest in Selma just did not take off like we hoped. It just didn't seem to be a good fit for Selma."

The chamber does hold several events, such as the Raisin Festival and Band Festival, which bring people to downtown Selma. They also do a holiday open house the first weekend in November and a holiday craft fair.

"We're working on buying new Christmas decorations for our downtown area, but that's a $3,500 project," Howell said. "Anything you do costs money. If you don't have revenue, improvements are not going to happen."

Howell said that she would like to meet with some of the merchants to discuss some of the improvements that need to be made downtown.

"The chamber wants to help with those in any way we can," she said.