Barracks Row Main Street was presented the 2005 Great American Main Street Award on Monday for it’s decade-plus work to revitalize the Eighth Street Southeast commercial area.

The award was presented at the National Main Street Conference in Baltimore by Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Doug Loescher, executive director of the trust’s Main Street Center.

In the early 1990s, area merchants formed the Barracks Row Business Alliance, which is now known as the Barracks Row Main Street program, a 501(c)(3) organization, to redevelop a downtrodden section of Capitol Hill.

“Barracks Row Main Street has made great strides, not only in reclaiming its buildings and recruiting new businesses, but also by promoting Barracks Row as a center for celebrating community,” Moe said, according to the Barracks Row Main Street Web site (www.barracksrow.org).

The area has come a long way in recent years. There has been $19 million of public and private money reinvested into the community since 1999, allowing for significant physical improvement and economic revitalization for the Eighth Street corridor.

Barracks Row Main Street was selected as the recipient of one of five awards from a list of 10 semifinalist Main Street programs in locations such as Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia and Massachusetts. The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Main Street Center assists communities of all sizes in revitalizing historic commercial districts. More information can be found at www.mainstreet.org.

James Names New Senior Officer at GPO

As the Government Printing Office moves forward with its massive agency-wide reorganization and planned relocation from its North Capitol Street location, Public Printer Bruce James has tapped a new chief human capital officer, who will be responsible for directing and monitoring the transformation of all major GPO operations.

William Harris, who has served as acting CHCO since July 2004, was officially named to the post late last week. The 26-year GPO veteran, who for the majority of his career served as the agency’s director of occupational health and environmental services, will oversee operations in labor relations, work force development and employee communications.

In a release issued last week, James praised Harris for his wealth of experience and said that “one of the most important pieces of this agency’s transformation has been addressed with this addition.”

“My main objective is to ensure that the GPO workforce meets and exceeds the transformation challenges of today and into the future,” Harris said in a statement.

Harris is an Army veteran who served a tour of combat duty in Vietnam and holds a bachelor’s degree and a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland at College Park as well as a master’s from Bowie State University.

— Jennifer Lash and John McArdle