Marietta residents and business owners already know what a treasure we have in Marietta Main Street Executive Director Jen Tinkler. Now the whole state knows.

Tinkler was honored as this year’s Ohio Main Street Director of the Year during the organization’s annual conference earlier this month.

Tinkler’s nominator described her as being heavily involved — sitting on many boards and making connections with a wide range of other organizations. She finds new partners and, according to her nominator, has taken the organization to levels the board never thought possible.

Always working for excellence in revitalizing downtown, Tinkler is credited with working with Marietta City Council to bring more than $100,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funding to Marietta Main Street, to provide more grants for businesses, update equipment and grow programming, in addition to building an adequate financial reserve.

According to Heritage Ohio, the Ohio Main Street program “works with communities across the state to revitalize their historic or traditional commercial areas. Based on historic preservation, the Main Street approach was developed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation to save historic commercial architecture and the fabric of American communities’ built environment but has become a powerful economic development tool as well.”

To that end, Tinkler is a hard worker who has focused all that effort and energy on downtown Marietta, and it is yielding results.

Congratulations on the honor. Well done.