Local citizens are looking at an out of the box way to give the small village of Manchester a make-over.
Businesswoman Shandra Irwin announced last week that she and her husband would be coordinating efforts to submit Manchester to the HGTV television show titled “Home Town Takeover” for a make-over. The program, hosted by Ben and Erin Napier, is available to cities and towns with a population under 40,000; homes with great architecture waiting to be revealed and having a Main Street area needing a facelift. The Napiers are home renovation experts who have a heart for small-town living and a passion for restoring historic dwellings.
During a town hall meeting last week, Irwin said, “As soon as we saw this go on Facebook, we had a personal interest to want to do something for HGTV,” said Irwin. “So immediately I contacted Teresa Blythe who is the Mayor of Manchester… because we had so many people that were on top of it.”
Dozens of local residents and public officials attended the meeting on Friday evening, including Dane Clark and Barbara Moore who are both running for separate seats on the Board of Commissioners.
With many volunteers already stepping forward, Irwin has planned a community clean-up day for January 25th and has coordinated efforts with community dinner at the Manchester Community Building on January 21st to give residents an opportunity to show their support through interviewing them for the video submission. Irwin also stated that she and her husband, who are taking care of the filming, will be using the January 25th clean-up day as a filing opportunity.
“If you have something you want to say about your community, something that you have done, like to do or just raised your family here… we would love to interview you,” said Irwin.
According to Irwin, the video submission must be submitted by February 4th.
In addition, Irwin stated, Manchester has local competition. During the town hall meeting, Irwin told attendees Chillicothe, Proctorville, and Maysville, Kentucky are submitting to HGTV for the make-over.
If you are interested in helping with the project, contact Shandra Irwin at (937) 217-8099. The entire town hall meeting can be found on Irwin’s Facebook page, Shandra Havens Irwin.
