Vicksburg’s Main Street Program is seeking to update its nearly 30-year-old image.

Main Street’s board of directors voted Thursday to give Executive Director Kim Hopkins the OK to inquire about branding services from Arnett Muldrow & Associates, which has conducted studies for Main Street organizations throughout the state.

“We’re wanting to update,” Hopkins said. “We’ve been a Main Street (affiliate) for 26 years, going on 27, and we’re still using stuff from back then.”

Ronnie Bounds, vice chairman of the board,said, “The Main Street area needs its own identity in order to market our area, just like the outlet mall has their own sign.”

Arnett Muldrow & Associates, based in Greenville, S.C., works with organizations in 18 states, specializing in community branding, retail market analysis, historic preservation and downtown master planning, its website said.

“They’ll come in and work with us on our signage, our logos, our website and talk to merchants downtown,” Hopkins said. “This would be for our downtown taxing district,” which encompasses a 20-block radius on Mulberry, Jackson, Veto and Cherry streets.

Vicksburg Main Street is looking at pairing with Port Gibson Main Street on the update. Both would share the cost, estimated at $8,000 and $12,000.

In October, the Vicksburg Convention and Visitors Bureau launched a citywide branding process. North Star of Nashville was hired for $62,000 over a course of 36 weeks to research and collect data on locals and travelers. The data will be compiled and made available to tourism agencies, VCVB board chairman Annette Kirklin said.

“Research goes hand-in-hand, and I think this is a positive for Main Street,” she said. “We need more people and more tourists in Vicksburg, and I’m certain this will helpful.”