MASSENA, New York (WWNY) – The village of Massena is ironing out which projects will be funded through the state’s $10 million downtown grant.
The village has been holding monthly LPC meetings, that’s the local planning committee, all to vamp up the downtown area.
“This month we’re going to be refining those goals and strategies, and hopefully getting consensus on those today,” meeting host Nora Culhane Friedel said.
The village won a $10 million state grant last year, as part of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative or DRI.
On Tuesday there was talk about ways to make downtown more sustainable and aesthetically pleasing.
“The top prior-ties that we heard were to bring people to the downtown,” Friedel said, “a greater variety of shops, a more vibrant and aesthetically pleasing downtown.”
This was some of the feedback that project consultants received from public workshops and an online survey, where people were asked to narrow down some goals and strategies for the DRI.
This made it easier for consultants to narrow down a list of projects. They’re currently looking at 18 items.
“You know I think today was kind of like an introduction of all the projects that were turned in by the March 25th deadline,” Massena Mayor Gregory Paquin said.
Some of these potential projects are focused around Main Street and Water Street., but projects are not limited to this area as long as they meet the DRI boundary criteria.
“The village has brought forth projects, street scape enhancements that are located throughout the downtown,” Friedel said.
Some of the prospective projects include the river walk, downtown enhancements, and the water view apartments.
“We didn’t really go into much detail about them,” Paquin said. “Really, all you saw was the location of them and the projected cost.”
The LPC will be narrowing the list down again next month.
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