Sarah Grunewaldt looks back on nearly a decade in Washington

WASHINGTON — Former Main Street Washington Executive Director Sarah Grunewaldt begins her new role as Johnson County Public Health’s outreach and engagement coordinator on Wednesday. The change marks the end of her nearly 10 years as the group’s leader, after she moved to Washington from a historic building rehab gig in Boston.

The smaller community was a change of pace, and did not necessarily make the best impression on her first visit.

“I was here on a Monday or a Tuesday, and repeatedly (the host) apologized that nothing was open,” Grunewaldt said. “And I’m like, ‘You’re not selling town very well if you’re apologizing that the restaurants aren’t open on this day,’ but she was so gracious and so sweet that you just kind of looked past that fact.”

Still, she ended up accepting the position and moving to Washington knowing nobody in town. Grunewaldt said the first day was an early lesson learned.

“Selling your community and customer service sometimes isn’t inherent,” she said. “And we need to remind people that no matter who you are, whether you’re a volunteer, or the clerk at a gas station, or the person standing in front of somebody at Walmart, you are the face of this community and you can be just as much of an ambassador as the people paid to be.”

The following years saw huge progress for Main Street Washington, including some highlights like restorations to the State Theater, various challenge grants and DIG grants.

With an undergrad degree in museum science and master’s in historic preservation, Grunewaldt brought extensive experience in the field.

“I like the research, I like digging in, I like finding stuff, but I also like telling those stories and helping put exhibits together and the creative side of things,” she said. “Historic preservation is telling the story of an old building, doing the research to find those pieces, helping to get moneys or tax credits to help restore that or preserve it or whatever.”

Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that Main Street Washington enjoyed a renaissance of historic preservation initiatives under Grunewaldt’s leadership.

“The preservation side of things, the grant side of things, is where I felt strongest, and was really the area they felt weakest when I came on,” she said. “The amount of investment that has happened in this downtown is unreal compared to where it was at when I started … we’re talking (around) $15 million of investment.”

Often, that task has to balance the importance of history with the flow of modern life.

“Not every old building should be a museum,” she Grunewaldt said. “There are a lot of historic house museums in a lot of communities across this country that are floundering because somebody thought it was savable, and that’s not sustainable for a lot of places.”

While she led many of those historic initiatives, Grunewaldt said she couldn’t take credit for all the progress, much of which she said came from the group’s effective board members.

“It’s their organization, if they decided they didn’t like something I was doing, they can tell me to stop at any time,” she said. “We have had a wonderful core of volunteers that were very passionate.”

Some of the progress is a product of slow changes, hard to associate with any one person.

“Last year we had seven ribbon cuttings in two months,” Grunewaldt said. “But it didn’t happen until then, either, I’ve been here nine years. Main Street is a program that’s about baby steps. It’s a different program under me … but the next program’s going to be different under whoever leads it next also.”

In Grunewaldt’s words, Washington tends to “punch above its weight class” when it comes to local affairs, whether it’s school quality, business success or nonprofit initiatives. She said it owed that trait to a passionate populace.

“I think it’s because people love this community,” she said. “People helping to form the projects and the progress of our community are creative and outside the box and they think big. They’re willing to do the research and the homework to bring new funding to our community or bring new resources in.”

Grunewaldt said those efforts had tangible payoffs, beyond the abstract importance of historical preservation.

“You have a visceral reaction to a community that’s well-maintained,” she said. “People like being in places that are cozy and people-oriented … to be blunt, you start to see the cash registers ring more because people want to be where there’s action going on.”

As she prepares for her new position in Johnson County, Grunewaldt said much of her work would resemble the role at Main Street: communicating with the public, news releases, network building and marketing are all mentioned in the brand-new position’s job description.

One aspect will be notably missing, however: historical preservation. That doesn’t mean Grunewaldt will leave the field entirely, however.

“I think there’s definitely opportunity for me outside of my role with Johnson County to consult privately to help people, or if they have questions for grant writing,” she said. “I will be able to pick it back up if I ever so choose.”

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