(Image Courtesy of Mayor Sam Teresi / Facebook)
JAMESTOWN – Approximately 50 people attended Tuesday Night’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative meeting at the Robert H. Jackson Center.
The public meeting was hosted by the New York State Department of State and HR&A Advisors, the consulting group that was brought in to help oversee the planning process. Chris Bauer with the Department of State’s office of planning development said the meeting was another effort gain input into how $10 million in state economic development funding should be spent.
“It’s an opportunity for us to get with the public and gauge their views on some of the projects being proposed – get some feedback from them – which really helps guide us and our efforts to figure out what our priorities are for Jamestown,” Bauer told WRFA following the meeting.
One of the five breakout groups during the Dec. 13 DRI Meeting, discussing which projects should be prioritized for $10,000,000 in state economic development funding.
One of the top priority projects to receive at least a portion of the money is the National Comedy Center, but there are many other projects – including the Riverwalk, the Reg Lenna renovation effort, and the Furniture Mart redevelopment – that could also qualify for the funding. Eligible projects have to have a focus on improving the economic climate for the city and must have a focus to improving the downtown.
Tuesday’s input session allowed attendees to break out into five separate groups and discuss and prioritize the eligible projects. Bauer said that part of the process proved to be helpful.
“A couple of the comments about different funding areas that some of the groups thought DRI should not go for; it was good to get that feedback,” Bauer said. “But it was also good to see the common threads. It shows that we’re heading down the right track and it helps guide the consultant teams as they move forward and look at the projects in greater detail.”
Bauer that the public input process will continue for the next couple months, although he was unable to offer a timeline for when the spending plan will be finalized and released to the public.
“We’re moving very quickly for a planning process,” Bauer said. “It’s very aggressive and we have a good idea on what we need to accomplish, and that is to show what are the priority projects for Jamestown and what do we want to propose for potential funding for those projects. So that’s our goal and that’s what we’ve been working on and once we get that completed, we’ll have more clarity [on finalizing a spending plan].”
The next and final public meeting will take place in February 2017. Input will be collected and evaluated in order to determine how the funding will be applied.
Residents unable to attend any public meetings are also invited to comment online at www.surveymonkey.com/r/JamestownDRI.
In August Jamestown was announced as the Western New York recipient of the $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative Grant. A total of ten different grants was awarded to communities in ten different regions of New York State.
Leave a Reply