Grayling Main Street executive director leaving for different role with Main Street program

The Grayling Main Street program is conducting a search for a new executive director as its current director – Jill Tremonti – moves to a different job at Michigan Main Street within the Michigan Economic Development Corporation.

Tremonti’s official last day as Grayling Main Street executive director was June 2 and she will start her new job as Promotions Specialist for Michigan Main Street on June 12.

“I’ll be helping all Main Streets in Michigan with marketing and advertising promotions,” Tremonti said.

Tremonti said the new job is a remote position and she will be staying in Grayling. She will continue to be a member of the Grayling Promotional Association and she is looking to possibly serve on a few local boards, she said.

“I’m not going anywhere. People will still see me,” Tremonti said.

Tremonti joined the Grayling Main Street board of directors in 2018 and was serving as board chair when the executive director at the time left to take a different job. As board chair, Tremonti took over director duties and in January of 2022 was officially named executive director of Grayling Main Street by the board.

Tremonti said she enjoyed the special events organized by Grayling Main Street, including block parties, the annual Christmas Walk, and the Harvest Festival.

“Post-COVID people really wanted to be out and about with each other and we recognized that. The board saw it as an opportunity to bring events back and get people back in the space together,” Tremonti said.

Tremonti said Harvest Festival was a special event for her because it was one of the first Grayling events to which she took her children when she moved to Grayling 12 years ago.

“Harvest Fest will always be the most special for me. I’ve always held it near and dear,” Tremonti said.

Tremonti said building up strong downtowns is one of the Main Street program’s missions, and she enjoyed working with others on positive collaborations for the community.

“I think what I’m most proud of is we really started focusing on partnerships with other community organizations to work together to make things better for everybody,” Tremonti said.

Tremonti said she received a “lot of positive feedback” as she prepared to leave her role with Grayling Main Street.

“You can’t do this job if you don’t put in a lot of hard work. You really have to care about what you’re doing to do it well,” Tremonti said.

“Main Street is supposed to be an organization that revitalizes historic downtown districts. A lot of what that entails is planning in the sense of working within the municipality and putting together five-year plans, 10-year plans, and figuring out what this district needs to be sustainable five years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now,” Tremonti said.

Tremonti said Grayling Main Street is partially funded by the City of Grayling but a lot of “grant writing” and “fundraising” is also involved. 

“That future planning is not simple. There’s a lot of complexity,” Tremonti said.

Grayling Main Street celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2023. Tremonti said being involved with the program was a positive experience for her.

“I joined Grayling Main Street after my brother died. After watching that happen I had the realization that I wasn’t engaging with the community in the way I should. That has really shifted a lot of things in my life for me and has brought a lot of joy and community building for me and I definitely wouldn’t be stepping into this new role without this experience. If it had taken me out of Grayling it wouldn’t be a consideration,” Tremonti said.