By Barbara Harrington

Senior Writer

ABERDEEN - For the third consecutive year, Aberdeen Main Street has been accredited as a National Main Street Program.

A letter states that the Mississippi Main Street Association evaluated the Aberdeen organization's performance in 2008 and determined that it met the 10 performance standards and criteria required to be named an accredited program.

Criteria for accreditation include broad-based community support including public and private sectors, development of vision and mission statements relevant to community conditions, have a comprehensive work plan, possess and exhibit an historic preservation ethic, have an active board of directors with committees, have an adequate operating budget, have a paid professional program manager, conduct ongoing training, report key statistics and have current membership in the National Main Street Network membership program.

Main Street director Glen Houston made the announcement at the March board meeting. Then she looked to a newcomer to Aberdeen, who is a volunteer at the Visitors Bureau for her impressions of the town. Kathy Bryant, who moved here from Knoxville, said as she and her husband traveled between the two towns, "every time we were going to Aberdeen I could feel myself relaxing. The friendliness of the people is the great gift of Aberdeen." When she told people where she was moving, "they would say you're going where," but they are planning visits. She is a long-time friend of Deborah Stubblefield, Visitors Bureau director and relative newcomer to Aberdeen, and moved after visiting here.

At the meeting, Mayor Jim Ballard talked about January sales tax figures being down $6,000 from last year and in this economy he didn't consider that major. He also told about a new street light that is being considered for downtown under the canopies, where "it is kind of dark."

Stubblefield told about working on an audio driving tour of Aberdeen, with CDs available or it can be downloaded from the web site onto an MP3 player.

Chamber director Tony Green said the Monroe Leadership Institute is going well, that this past month's meeting featured healthcare, hosted by Susan Grimes. The next program would be on economic development. After attending a Three Rivers meeting on stimulus money, he learned about money for workforce training and what ICC is looking at for that. He gave the status of the Monroe magazine, a full-color, glossy image publication touting Monroe County.

William Tisdale talked about cleaning up for Pilgrimage, at least on the streets with houses open. Houston said Main Street sponsors a downtown cleanup a couple of weeks before the event and everyone is welcome to join the four or five regulars in that endeavor. It is done on a Saturday morning.