The Catskill Chronicle

ROSCOE – The Roscoe Rockland Chamber of Commerce is the recipient of a $200,000 grant from the New York State Housing Trust Fund and the Office of Community Renewal.

The grant is part of the agency’s Main Street Program and is designed to assist communities in downtown renewal with an emphasis on façade improvements, capital improvements to businesses within the defined town center and improvements to residential units above business properties.

The Chamber received technical support on applying for the grant through Sullivan County’s Division of Planning and the Sullivan County Department of Grants Administration.

The project is a direct result of a series of community visioning meetings under the auspices of Sullivan Renaissance and Community Planner, Helen Budrock. In addition, the Chamber has also applied its $50,000 Golden Feather award from Sullivan Renaissance to the project in order to include streetscape work in the project in the form of new and improved sidewalks, and enhancements to the downtown business district.

The Grant process, similar to the successful project in Kauneonga Lake several years ago, requires the Chamber to establish design criteria, and solicit applications from building owners. The criteria  will then be assessed as to their readiness and viability by an independent review committee.

The program requires a 75/25 match with 25% of the cost of the renovations being the responsibility of the building owner or additional funding source.

The program is expected to take two years to complete.

The committee has been active in developing partnerships and soliciting and applying for additional funding to assist the business owners, many of whom suffered physical losses in a series of floods in 2004, 2005 and 2006 as well as economic losses due to road closures from the Colchester flood of 2007.

Newly installed Chamber President Elaine Fettig credits her predecessor Rick Baxter with developing the project to this point, and is in the process of organizing a series of public meetings, education and outreach regarding the program and its benefits to building owners in the target area.

Local artist Jack Yelle has been preparing artistic renderings of the concepts which will be displayed at a public meeting scheduled for Thursday, February 4, 2010 at the Roscoe Central School Cafeteria at 7 PM.

For additional information, contact Pat Pomeroy 607-498-5757 or Elaine Fettig 845-439-4039. In the event of inclement weather or school closure the meeting will be rescheduled for the same time on February 11.