Organizers agreed, there was no better place to schedule the first-ever Montana Main Street Convention than Butte.

Tony Preite, Director of the Montana Department of Commerce, told the crowd gathered earlier this week at the Finlen Hotel that Butte exemplified "how critical the Main Streets of Montana are to the local economy." The two-day conference closes this afternoon. It attempts to encourage communities to use their unique assets to rebuild their downtowns.

"The goal of our program is to combine preservation with economic development to spawn new life into downtown communities," said Preite.

The conference's theme is community revitalization. Presentations at the Finlen include event hosting, downtown revitalization, primers on the legislative process, simple façade improvements, business incubators and creation of a buy-local movement.

The Main Street program is a national effort, in use since the 1980s, to spark life into traditional commercial districts that have fallen on hard times.

In 2005, the Montana Legislature authorized funding to join the national program. Two years later, the Montana Department of Commerce launched an affiliate, pilot program for smaller communities.

Yesterday, four more Montana towns were accepted into that program: Whitehall, Townsend, Shelby and Glasgow.

They join seven other full-fledged members, including Anaconda and Butte. In those two towns, Main Street combined with other agencies to light Butte's remaining head frames, plant trees along the entryway streets to the historic district and to promote the Copper King Express passenger train in Anaconda.

Preite said that Main Street programs have helped create 106 jobs and opened 45 businesses in Montana.

Nationwide, it has produced investment of more than $5 billion, spurred the rehabilitation of historic structures, provided space for 38,000 new businesses and created 100,000 new jobs, according to the program Web site.