The Van Wert County Courthouse

Friday, Mar. 29, 2024

MSVW honors businesses, 2013 volunteer

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

Main Street Van Wert "Volunteer of the Year" Vicki Schulte (center) is honored by MSVW Interim Program Manager Adam Ries (left) and MSVW Board President Denise Frey. (Dave Mosier/Van Wert independent)

The Main Street Van Wert organization recognized downtown businesses — and a special volunteer – during its annual dinner held Monday evening at the Black Swamp Bistro.

A number of businesses and organizations were honored on Monday, including the Van Wert County Common Pleas Court for the renovation of its courtroom, located on the third floor of the Courthouse. County Commissioner Thad Lichtensteiger and former commissioner Clair Dudgeon were on hand to receive that award.

Other businesses honored with the Main Street Van Wert “Faces and Places” awards included Travis Tribolet of Simply Irresistible bakery, Brent Gibson and Ashley Baxter of Gibby’s Photo/Shutterbugg Photography, Bradde Hamman and Bethany Nolin of Open Minded tattoo/piercing shop, Leslie Moser of Van Wert Massotherapy and the Van Wert Area Chamber of Commerce for its new downtown office.

The 2013 “Volunteer of the Year” award was presented to Vicki Schulte, a member of the Main Street Van Wert Board of Directors who has been involved in a number of downtown projects and activities such as the Market on Main downtown sale events over the past year.

Schulte will also become a downtown business owner later this spring when she and her husband open a repurposing shop called Once I Was.

Also during the meeting, Main Street Van Wert Interim Project Manager Adam Ries also detailed some of the successes in the downtown area, noting that a total of 26 net jobs were created downtown over the past 12 months, while $1.4 million was spent on downtown projects.

Local historian Larry Webb presents information on the Lincoln Highway's 100th anniversary this year. (Dave Mosier/Van Wert independent)

The keynote speaker for the event was Larry Webb, a longtime local historian and Lincoln Highway aficionado who gave a presentation on the highway’s 100th anniversary this year. The timing was favorable, since the Lincoln Highway is also Main Street in downtown Van Wert, a fact that Webb noted in his presentation.

Webb showed a video on the creation of the Lincoln Highway and the people involved in that privately-funded project first dedicated in 1913, and also had a PowerPoint slide show showing a number of historical local buildings that (mostly) still remain along the Lincoln Highway in Van Wert County and in Indiana.

More than 100 people showed up for the Main Street Van Wert dinner, a crowd Ries said was the largest annual dinner attendance ever for the downtown development organization.

Also speaking at the event was Denise Frey of First Financial Bank, who chairs the Main Street Van Wert board.

POSTED: 04/30/13 at 6:58 am. FILED UNDER: News