REVITALIZATION Project gains $2M in gifts

The fund-raising effort is attracting unsolicited donations.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
GROVE CITY, Pa. -- The plan to revitalize the borough's downtown business district has no lack of financial backers.
David M. Dayton, chairman of Grove City Revitalization Inc., a nonprofit group formed to help put the project together, said contributions and pledges are closing in on $2 million toward a total project cost expected to exceed $6 million.
"We're very pleased with the progress," he said this week, adding that the actual private end of the fund drive hasn't even started yet.
His organization has pledged to raise $500,000 from private sources for the project and made the 50 percent mark with a single gift of $250,000 from Grove City College.
That was an unrequested commitment to the project that came as "a tremendous shot in the arm for us," Dayton said.
The college gave $15,000 immediately to help pay the consulting engineers developing the revitalization plan, and the rest will be used as a "challenge" grant to match other private funds the revitalization group is able to secure. The challenge money will be made available over a five-year period.
Making it a challenge grant provides an incentive in approaching businesses, individuals, foundations and others for financial support, Dayton said.
The Grove City Kiwanis Club and the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 519 have made the first unsolicited donations to the project from the community group sector.
"That shows the community is really behind this revitalization project," Dayton said.
The borough itself has committed nearly $1 million over the life of the project, he said.
Several phases
The project has been broken into phases, with the first phase, estimated at $2.6 million, set to go out for bid in January 2005.
That gives his organization eight or nine months to raise the rest of the money for phase one, he said, noting that a major chunk of that need could be filled by a $500,000 grant pending with the state Department of Community and Economic Development. Word on that funding request is expected soon, he said.
Groundbreaking is tentatively set for next spring, with phase one to be completed by spring 2006.
Downtown is the first impression that people get of a community, Dayton said, explaining why revitalization is so important.
If the downtown business district is run-down, it shows the general health of the community isn't good, he said.
The condition of the downtown also affects the property value of the entire town, he said.
"The town needs a face-lift," Dayton said, adding that the center of the borough hasn't had any major improvements in more than 40 years.
Phase one will concentrate along Broad, Main and Blair streets and feature new sidewalks and curbs, street resurfacing, new streetlights, landscaping with pedestrian amenities and moving all utility lines underground.
A second phase will expand that same scope of work to include portions of Center Street, College Avenue and Pine Street.
Later phases could include similar improvements along traffic arteries leading into the business district, Dayton said.