Main Street Hanover leader reflects as she moves on to a new state role

After a distinguished, decade-long career helping revitalize and draw business to downtown Hanover, the executive director of Main Street Hanover is moving on to a bigger role to help communities across the state.

Justine Trucksess, who served in the role for nine years after several years volunteering with the organization, has moved on to become the special projects coordinator for the Pennsylvania Downtown Center.

In this role, Trucksess is able to bring the wealth of experience and knowledge she's gained in working with Hanover's downtown, and help downtown communities all around Pennsylvania.

"I'm really looking forward to being able to support other managers in this work, because it's hard," said Trucksess.

The Pennsylvania Downtown Center is a nonprofit organization that serves as the state coordinating program for the National Main Street Center, which provides technical support to organizations like Main Street Hanover when it comes to things like networking, grant writing, and the best practices to help grow and revitalize downtown communities.

In fact, the Pennsylvania Downtown Center actually helped Main Street Hanover get started, working closely with local officials at the time to help make a vision for the future of Hanover's downtown, Trucksess says.

"I remember it because we didn't"

Trucksess, who attended Delone Catholic High School, moved to Penn Township with her parents in 2001 as her family moved around for the military.

While downtown Hanover would grow to become such a large part of Trucksess' adult life, it was absent from her experience as a child.

"I remember it, because we didn't," said Trucksess of visiting Hanover's downtown in her youth. "It was a pass through point."

After high school, Trucksess went to college in Pittsburgh, then moved to Alexandria, Virginia, a town with a bustling and active historic downtown community.

That lack of an experience was part of what drove Trucksess to want to better the community, and when she moved into Hanover as an adult, she soon began volunteering with the Main Street Hanover efforts in 2013.

"I wanted to make it a place that I would have wanted growing up here," said Trucksess.

Two years after she began volunteering, Trucksess made the effort her full-time job, landing the role as executive director for Main Street Hanover.

Since then, Trucksess is proud of the growth she's seen happen in Hanover's downtown.

"It has been incredible to see," Trucksess said. "I am a firm believer that if you care about a place, other people will begin to care."

During her last event as executive director, Trucksess helped welcome Greer's Burger Garage to the downtown community during a ribbon-cutting event for the new burger shop.

That event showcased just another example of the downtown that Main Street Hanover has helped create with the assistance of Trucksess and others, with a once condemned and vacant building turning into a lively, mixed-use apartment building and restaurant.

Mixed-use has been a core aspect of many of the projects Trucksess has been involved with, from revitalizing the Montgomery building on Frederick Street, to the renovation of the McAllister Hotel.

Both spaces consist of modern apartments located above commercial property, with the McAllister apartments being housed above the popular McAllister's on York restaurant, much like the property at Greer's.

"The bread and butter of a downtown community is mixed use," said Trucksess, "it's a synergy of people living and patronizing the businesses around them."

"It creates that circular effect of, I live here, so I'm gonna go get a coffee in the morning, I'm gonna go eat in the evening."

Highlights of a career

Among one of the most significant accomplishments highlighted by Trucksess was the economic development liquor licenses that Main Street Hanover worked with local business owners to obtain for OAK and the McAllister's on York restaurants.

"It was an incredible learning experience," said Trucksess, who noted Hanover was the first in York County to successfully to get these licenses for a business.

"We had to fight really hard to demonstrate how impactful a liquor license restaurant would be for this community," Trucksess explained. "And it was not an easy fight."

That process involved "a lot of manpower," Trucksess said, and countless hours of research, lawyers, and making the case to the board.

The licenses would ultimately help bring two hugely successful and local restaurants to Hanover's downtown, something that would have been much more difficult if the small businesses would have had to spend upwards of $500,000 on liquor licenses, Trucksess said.

Along with the businesses that have been drawn to Hanover in her years, Trucksess is also proud of the events that Main Street Hanover has held over the years.

Chief among those was the Sip & Stroll, which the organization started in 2015 "on a whim," said Trucksess.

The event, which has continued for almost a decade now, is a hugely important way to "break the ice" and get people to step into new businesses, Trucksess explains.

"It's a great entry point for people to learn about the new businesses downtown," said Trucksess.

"People seek out comfort," Trucksess said, explaining that just getting people to step into a new business during an event like the Sip & Stroll exposes them to the business and makes them more likely to return after the event.

Other highlights for Trucksess included the Hometown Heroes banners that highlight local veterans, the renovation of the Montgomery building, which was once a blighted property, and facade grants to improve the appearance of downtown properties.

A bittersweet departure

Ultimately, for Trucksess, the most rewarding part of the job has been the people she's had a chance to work with over the years.

The average tenure of a main street manager is about 18 months, Trucksess explains, but in her case, it was the people who helped her stay in the role for so long.

"The people are what I will truly treasure about this time," said Trucksess. "They were cheering on the downtown in a way that the naysayers could never compete with."

"I knew there are people who cared as much as I did, and I wanted to be there for them."

While leaving Main Street Hanover is bittersweet for Trucksess, she looks forward to continuing to give back to the Hanover community as a volunteer and through her work with the Pennsylvania Downtown Center, which assists organizations such as Main Street Hanover.

Despite the new role, Trucksess will still be active in the community through the Christmas Committee and volunteering with local events, and looks forward to continuing to support and patronize businesses in Hanover's downtown.

"It has truly been an honor to work in this role," said Trucksess, "and to work with all the people I got to work with."

Harrison Jones is the Hanover reporter for The Evening Sun. Contact him at hjones@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Hanover Evening Sun: Main Street Hanover leader moves on to a new state role