Earning high marks
From its branding campaign to its revitalization initiatives, Main Street El Dorado is making a name for itself
The city of El Dorado was recognized twice during the 2020 Main Street Arkansas Excellence in Downtown Revitalization Awards, including an honor for the city’s very own Main Street Hero. For his past work with Main Street El Dorado and the Downtown Business Association and a general passion for downtown vitality, El Dorado City Council Member Paul Choate was named the 2020 Main Street Hero during the Arkansas Municipal League Winter Conference, which was held Feb. 12 - 14 in Little Rock. Main Street El Dorado also took home the award for Best Image/Branding Campaign. Choate has played a role in the evolution of downtown El Dorado for more than four decades. After moving to El Dorado from Harrison in the mid1970s, Choate, then 24, went to work as the manager of the original Sterling store location in downtown El Dorado. The site is now the Mahony parking on North Washington Avenue. Several years later, Choate was asked to join an effort to revive what was then the Downtown Merchants Association, now known as the Downtown Business Association, which Choate would eventually chair. Through his work with the DBA, Choate became an active member of a like-minded group who also had the best interest of downtown at heart: Main Street El Dorado.
The owner of a CMI insurance agency twice served as president of the MSE board of directors and chairman of several committees.
He also steered the nonprofit organization through one of its toughest times.
“I was a member of the executive committee, then I became president in 2008, 2009 and I was working on MusicFest and all of the other festivals that we had,” Choate recalled. “I went back on the board as president in 2016 and that’s when we lost our former executive director to MAD.”
“We had a less-than-stellar MusicFest that year and it was time to start rebuilding the program,” he continued.
As the search for a new executive director progressed, it was Choate who suggested that former Main Street board member and volunteer Beth Brumley apply for the job.
“It was just one of those things. It went back to Main Street 101. I take full credit for bringing Beth back, but when you’ve got somebody who works as hard as she does, it’s easy to make me look good,” he said with a laugh.
Brumley came aboard as the new MSE executive director in spring 2017 and working with Choate and other board members, she helped to set the program on a new course, one that it would lessen its focus on