Butler's Downtown Revitalization Committee exercised good judgment in bringing in someone from "outside" to become the city's Main Street manager.

It oftentimes is beneficial for someone not directly familiar with a place to come in and implement ideas and thinking utilized successfully elsewhere — experience that might not have been available with someone who has lived all or most of his or her life here.

Successful ideas and vision are what the revitalization committee hopes to achieve in its decision to bring Rebecca Smith, an administrative assistant in a Warren, Ohio, architectural firm, on board. In addition to her current employment, Smith has had experience with various ventures in Ohio, including the Warren G.R.O.W.S. Revitalization Design Committee, Youngstown CityScape, Cortland Historic District Committee, Mahoning River Consortium and Trumbull County Historical Society.

Smith's level of success will partly be linked to her ability to work closely with Butler leaders while remaining steadfast in the leadership role she has been hired to fill. She cannot be just a figurehead who accedes to local personalities that might strive to become most dominant regarding the directions that the downtown pursues.

Smith has the potential to be a positive force on behalf of the entire downtown area and she should be allowed to perform her duties freely and to the best of her ability — even though the revitalization committee will have a supervisory role in regard to her duties.

The state's Main Street Program, under which Smith was hired, helps municipalities through state grants, including money for the Main Street manager's salary for five years. The state program is overseen by the state Department of Community and Economic Development.

After the five-year funding expires, it is the community's responsibility to find the money to pay the Main Street manager's salary.

Smith, who will assume her new duties on Aug. 11, will be focusing on issues such as economic restructuring, promotion or marketing, design and organization, and she indicated she would be seeking volunteers to help in those endeavors.

According to an article in Sunday's Butler Eagle, some of the projects on which the local revitalization committee has set its sights are making the city more pedestrian friendly, attracting a brew pub, developing Butler's alleys and, perhaps, even development of bicycle and nature trails.

Among other projects on which Smith might be asked to focus are streetscapes, improving business facades and lighting.

This is not the first time that Butler has been involved with the Main Street Program. But unlike during the 1980s, when Butler embarked on its first attempt, this time the city has the advantage of knowing why the previous effort failed and what must be done to prevent a repeat of that experience.

A big part of the new program's fate will be the revitalization group's ability to keep a pool of money in place to help finance what it seeks to do, and to ensure the program's continuing, long-term existence.

It will take more than a few years to accomplish what the revitalization committee hopes to achieve, and the city's efforts under the umbrella of the state program should not be viewed as temporary or short-term.

The message to Smith at this point in time is "Welcome aboard, and come prepared to put all of your energy and foresight to work on behalf of Downtown Butler."

Her task will not be an easy one. At times it will test her mettle and perseverance, but her work here has the potential to bring much personal, as well as community, satisfaction.

While her experience up to now in other places will no doubt influence her thinking here, her challenge will have to be to learn much about Butler, its positives and negatives, and the personalities and attitudes that are in play in different parts of the community.

Her training and experience must be viewed as sources of great potential and hope for what can be accomplished here. The challenge she faces is to turn positive potential into real progress.