City a finalist for Main Street redo on TV

Bastrop is one step closer to getting an on-air Main Street makeover after it was named Tuesday among the top 10 finalists to appear on Season 3 of the show “Small Business Revolution.”

The series, which appears on both YouTube and Hulu streaming services, follows one town as it undergoes a $500,000 small business makeover. The first season featured the community of Wabash, Ind., and the second, Bristol Borough, Pa.

Bastrop was among thousands of small towns in the country to apply to be on Season 3.

In November, Deluxe Corp., the marketing firm that produces the show, chose Bastrop as one of 20 qualifying cities as part of a monthslong contest. Since then, it combed through applications and questionnaires to narrow the list down to 10. Those selections were announced online Tuesday, with Bastrop in the running.

“We had an incredibly difficult task to get down to only 10 communities,” Deluxe Corp. brand officer Amanda Brinkman said. “Every small town can use a boost, but we are excited to start visiting this group of 10 towns in January. Small businesses in small towns are incredibly important to our national economy. Deluxe is honored to shine a spotlight on these deserving communities.”

Bastrop is the only Texas city included among the finalists.

“Downtown Bastrop is honored to have made it this far, thanks to all of our small businesses, volunteers and community partners for participating in Round 1,” the city’s Main Street Director, Sarah O’Brien, said Tuesday. “We will band together, like Bastrop always does, to hopefully take this to Round 3.”

In this stage, Deluxe team members will travel to each of the 10 cities to meet civic leaders and interview business owners, after which it will narrow the list to five finalists. Viewers will be asked to vote on a winner between Feb. 13-20.

The other finalists are Aberdeen, S.D.; Alton, Ill.; Americus, Ga.; Amesbury, Mass.; Brainerd, Minn.; Exeter, N.H.; Florence, Ore.; Martinez, Calif.; Siloam Springs, Ark.

The town that is selected will be showcased in an eight-part series that will offer small business advice and will inject $500,000 into Main Street businesses. If Bastrop is chosen, shooting for the series will likely begin in the spring of 2018.

In the meantime, the producers are asking residents to voice what they love most about Bastrop. The city’s Main Street Program is prompting people to take to social media using the hashtag #MyBastrop to share their favorite things about the community.

“We will need everyone’s support, all over the great state of Texas, to land us the No. 1 spot,” O’Brien said.