Nearly 125 Marshall-area residents attended a meeting Wednesday night to hear the first impression assessment of tourism consulting firm Destination Development, Inc. about the city.

The verdict: Marshall has a downtown with tremendous potential, but first and foremost, the city has to implement a "way-finding system to connect the dots," said Roger A. Brooks, president of Destination Development, Inc., and be able to show visitors how to find what Marshall has to offer.

"We couldn't find anything," said Brooks of his company's five-day stay in Marshall. On a scale of one to 10, Brooks told The Marshall News Messenger he would have initially given Marshall a three, but that was before he was able to find downtown.

"We believe the heart of any community, besides the people, is downtown," Brooks said. "We also believe that Marshall's downtown has tremendous potential."

But the first impression of Marshall doesn't lead visitors and potential tourists downtown, Brooks explained at Wednesday's two-hour meeting in the East Texas Conference Center. Instead, confusing signage from ones that a driver would see on the highway to the ones someone passing through might see on Grand Avenue do not paint the city in the best light.