Robbins is reaching for another gold ring.

Town Commissioner Theron Bell and Town Clerk/Administrator Debra Cockman spent most of Wednesday morning working on banner ideas for the Farmers Day kickoff celebration of the town's three-year NC STEP effort.

Robbins won one of a very few slots in that demonstration program the N.C. Rural Center will use in an experimental effort trying to find out what works to restore economic prosperity to distressed small towns across the state. Robbins and nearby Candor are two test sites.

After weeks and weeks of meetings and hard work proved successful on that application, Cockman started taking note of other opportunities. She found one she thinks is not only tailormade for Robbins, but one that pairs perfectly with N.C. STEP.

"It is called the North Carolina Main Street Program, and it's to help improve downtowns," she said. ""t will be tough to get this one. They are only going to pick two towns this year."

This program is spearheaded and funded by the N.C. Department of Commerce. It "encourages, empowers and enlightens small towns in the state to revitalize their down towns by capitalizing on their strengths and using a four-point model: inclusive organization, coordinated design, consistent promotions, and economic restructuring," according to Robert Murphrey, who shepherds the program.

While only two towns will be added this year, other towns not all that unlike Robbins are already a part. In 2005, Zebulon was picked as a Main Street community along with nine other towns.

It was help, not a grant. Zebulon did not get money -- but expertise, economic development ideas and other suggestions to help the town improve the downtown appearance through effective collaboration between the town of Zebulon and the community.

"The Main Street program used to be for bigger places," Cockman said. "But three years ago, they added small towns."

Walnut Cove was the only town in the state last year to be accepted into the North Carolina Small Town Main Street Program, a new subset of the state's Main Street Program. Under this new program, more guidance is given in helping pursue downtown revitalization.

Experts say small towns, small businesses and restored downtowns are a much more powerful engine of economic improvement than any malls or "big-box" stores. One Massachusetts study compared public revenue and costs for various land uses.

In Barnstable, a city of 48,000 people, small downtown stores generated a net annual surplus (tax revenue minus costs of service) of $326 per 1,000 square feet of space, the study found. On the other hand, big-box stores made taxes rise, since they produced an annual deficit of $468 per 1,000 square feet. They were a drain on public services.

In North Carolina, the small town of Pineville added about six million square feet of retail space over a 10-year period, only to find that the new mall and many big box stores, generated so many police calls -- for bad checks, shoplifting, and parking lot accidents -- that they consumed all of the revenue that they produced. Pineville had to raise property taxes.

Desperate to control rising costs, the town has since blocked further big-box construction, according to the study as reported two years ago in Main Street News.

In contrast, a Main Street effort in Sparta produced $1.2 million in local, public and private money invested in building rehabilitation and some capital improvements. There were five building renovations and a net gain of 16 jobs and 10 businesses.

This, Cockman and Bell believe, is just what Robbins needs. As NC STEP helps the town reinvent its identity as a place to visit instead of a place to leave, rehabilitating its downtown around a restored Old Elise Depot visitors center and museum will have to play an essential role.

For that, she hopes to have help from the Department of Commerce with a place in their Small Town Main Street Program.

"Since the loss of all our major industries, the town has been struggling just to make ends meet," Cockman said in her application. "Within this past year, the whole town has come together in efforts to find new direction for our small town. Collectively, we have a vision of what we want our small town to become, but we need to build a strong organizational structure that can work together to make our dreams (our vision) a reality."

She called attention to coming changes in municipal structure.

"Currently, our board is � in the process of changing our form of government to a manager-council form," Cockman said. "They will advertise for and hire the first manager for the town of Robbins. With the strong leadership of our board and the eagerness of Northern Moore Tomorrow (a local organization of concerned citizens and business men and women) our town is prime for new direction."

She hopes a better streetscape, and rehabilitated downtown buildings in Robbins will create an atmosphere that attracts tourists to a restored and preserved historic town, where old plank road crossed creek and where gold panners found the glittery dust, and potters spun native clay.

Restoration and preservation stirs a small town's economy when that attracts visitors.

Studies find "preservation" visitors stay longer, visit twice as many places and spend two-and-a-half times as much money as do non-preservation visitors.

Nine out of 10 come with their family, more than half spend nights away from home, and 84 percent return to visit again, either to bring others or to take more time.