Volunteers help spruce up Main Street

Slowly but surely, white paint delivered by rollers covered the chipped brick red paint at one business on Main Street.

About 35 volunteers worked to repaint buildings on the historic part of the street Saturday as part of Clovis MainStreet’s continuing revitalization efforts. Clovis MainStreet Executive Director Robyne Beaubien said the group   is calling itself the Facade Squad.

Glinda Roberts, armed with a roller soaked with white paint, said she is glad downtown is getting the attention it deserves.

“It’s nice to kind of spruce up the downtown,” she said. “It looks like it’s been neglected.”

Roberts said Main Street needs to be attractive to both visitors and residents of the city.

“I want to be proud of the city I live in,” the retiree said. “I came because I want to say I had a part in the new face lift.”

Frank Martinez, 27, said downtown is the beginning of the city and should be taken care of.

“This is our foundation. Clovis started here. If you go to Amarillo, where I’m from, everything is based on their downtown. I think we should do the same here,” he said.

Martinez’s fiancee, Tracy Orozco, owns The Shoe String, one of the businesses getting a new coat of paint. Martinez said the couple has been getting ready for the clean up day for about two weeks.

“It’s great to give the business a fresh look,” he said.

Beaubien said Clovis is the second MainStreet community in the state to create a Facade Squad, after Santa Rosa. She said she’s hoping to get the group together two or three times a year.

“The whole MainStreet project is grass roots. We want to get the community involved. But we know it’s all baby steps,” she said.

Beaubien said supplies for the organization’s projects are paid for by grants and capital outlay money. Saturday’s painting venture was paid for by a $1,500 grant from Friends of New Mexico MainStreet.  

Lowe’s Home Improvement Center also matched the group’s purchases.