Jamestown Mayor Kim Ecklund discusses the city’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative award (June 22, 2026)
Jamestown Mayor Kim Ecklund has provided City Council with additional information about the DRI award.
The City of Jamestown has been awarded $10 million from the State’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative. This is the second time the City has received this funding, with the first time being in 2016. The goals of the DRI are to create an active downtown, attract new businesses, enhance public spaces, cultivate housing opportunities, grow the local tax revenue, provide amenities that support and enhance the quality of life; and improve the environment.
Ecklund said there are 24 projects included in the application the city made to the state that will be considered for funding.
She said a team at the City that includes the Mayor’s office, Department of Development Director Crystal Surdyk, and Interim Public Works Director Mark Roetzer will be working with the state, “At this point in time, the state has informed us that in the coming weeks they will be coming down with members of the Department of State, Economic State Development, Homes and Community Renewal, and the Governor’s Office. They are our lead agency. They are the ones who go in to direct us on the process, how we meet, what we do. Haven’t firmed that up yet, but they will be coming down for that intervention, I call it, and that intervention on us on what our process is, and along with the tour.”
Ecklund said a Local Planning Committee will be formed that’s comprised of a diverse group of stakeholders to oversee the process.
She said no one who is part of the grant process can serve nor any elected officials other than the Mayor. Ecklund said the committee will have no more than 15 members with a co-chair appointed by the State, “They will basically be the sounding board, the process for the grants that will be approved, or go through the process and all that, and work with the state. But, ultimately, the state chooses the final projects. So, we do have a plan for obviously multiple meetings of the Planning Committee, but there will also be multiple public sessions, probably three to four is my guess, where the public can be engaged in the process as well.”
Council member Tony Dolce added to Ecklund’s comments that City Council will not be voting on the projects and that it will be New York State that decides which projects get funded.
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