Reviving, sustaining Main Street eyed / By Martha Knight

Susan Carlson started off with a backward look at Port Allegany’s history, showing changes through the years, then asked, “How do we envision the future of our town?”, at a meeting sponsored by the Main Street Revitalization Corporation Thursday night.

Meeting in the Port Allegany Elementary School large group instruction room, about 30 people attended the session. Also addressing the group were McKean County Housing and Redevelopment Authority (HRA) director Dusti Dennis, county Economic Development Office director Sherri Geary, and McKean County Commissioner chairman Joe DeMott.

Of special interest was the south block of the Main Street business district, where one major structure is about to be demolished, and “five buildings are in trouble,” as Carlson reported, due to deterioration, foreclosure or vacancy.

Dennis explained that the Grand Theatre building is scheduled for demolition and will be “gone in a month.” Probably the site will be gravel covered, possibly providing parking. The HRA bought it from the county repository early last year, and later concluded that it would take almost $400,000 to rehabilitate the building.

Plans for the small building next door, most recently used as the SWAMP teen center, are unclear, Dennis said. More about the soundness of the structure will be known after the theater building is down, but the demolition contractor will be asked to provide insight.

Possible uses of the small building or its location mentioned by audience members were a tourist information center, a historical museum, an outlet of area or Pennsylvania crafts or products, or a combination of those.

The purchases of Main Street business buildings are connected with the war on blight, which has been gearing up in the past while with encouragement from the County Commissioners, state help and the services of a consultant, Dennis explained.

Local restaurateur and builder Mick Caulkins pointed out that in the past, the GRA has constructed numerous low-income housing developments in Port Allegany, while helping create office and business developments in other communities.

Carlson pointed out that an example of successful rehabilitation is at the “other corner” of the south block, where a building has been rehabilitated for use as medical offices operated by Olean Medical Group.

One idea mentioned by Carlson was offering goods from a Main Street business base, while also marketing dot-com style on the internet.

Geary discussed the fact that most buildings in the business district are privately owned. “The upper floor generally pays for the building,” she said, although in earlier times the opposite was true. Ideally the second floors are tenanted by “residents with disposable income.”

The Economic Development office can assist with combating blight and helping with code enforcement. “The community has to get behind that and support it,” Geary said.

DeMott quoted a former superintendent of schools, Dr. R. Tim Marks, as saying, “Everyone judges a community and all the people in it by the appearance of Main Street and your schools.” Key to maintaining or reviving a thriving downtown is the ability to attract small businesses, DeMott stated. He said, “The county is here to help.”

DeMott outlined accomplishments of the county and its agencies, as well as ongoing efforts and services aimed at assisting business and industry. The redundant fiberoptic loop installed several years ago has allowed health care providers to use telemedicine, and offered other communications enhancements. The upcoming flood control will prove important to industry by shrinking the flood plane.

Upcoming events for which Carlson was recruiting volunteers are a downtown Cleanup Day, set for May 10, and a store window decorating contest, to focus on imaginative designs in vacant store windows. The theme for the designs will be water trails, or a celebration of the Allegheny River as a major resource of the community.

Also sought are “Friends of Flowers,” Carlson’s term for additional volunteers to help the clubs and individuals that tend downtown planters, hanging baskets and plantings around the gazebo.