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Potsdam committee holds first meeting to plan use of $10 million downtown grant

Posted 12/18/19

BY CRAIG FREILICH North Country This Week POTSDAM -- The Potsdam Downtown Revitalization Initiative Local Planning Committee met for the first time Tuesday to begin sorting through ideas for spending …

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Potsdam committee holds first meeting to plan use of $10 million downtown grant

Posted

BY CRAIG FREILICH
North Country This Week

POTSDAM -- The Potsdam Downtown Revitalization Initiative Local Planning Committee met for the first time Tuesday to begin sorting through ideas for spending the $10 million grant from the state.

This was the first of several meetings that will take place over the next several months, with lots of opportunity for public input.

The project schedule and scope will be worked out through consideration of the applications proposals, “our initial ideas, and your input,” said Jaclyn Hakes of urban planning consultants M.J. Engineering and Land Surveying PC, the lead consulting agency.

Hakes led this introductory meeting. “We will lead ... and help you reach a consensus,” she said.

She walked the members through introductions, explanations of the members’ roles, and the Code of Conduct for such committees and the training on that which members will be required to take, mainly as a way of preventing any potential conflicts of interest.

Hakes spoke of devising the specifics of the “strategic investment plan” and its implementation for improving the downtown through the assortment of proposals presented by the village in their application for one of the regional $10 million grants that have been awarded for the last several years.

She also discussed the importance of community engagement and ways to accomplish that with open meetings, workshops, “popup” information tables at various locations around the village, and through other ideas that might be brought up. These will include a call for projects that people think should be considered within the downtown area that have not been expressed so far.

There will be an online survey, not scientific in nature, but which is designed to gauge the public’s mood about the general plan and specific projects.

There will also be several “stakeholder” meetings, with input from representatives of business and economic development; community organizations and institutions – service clubs, churches, recreation, entertainment, culture and tourism, housing and downtown living, public safety and village codes, mobility and infrastructure, and one category suggested by committee member Lee Van de Water, food and agriculture.

There will also be time devoted to confirming the vision of the projects and the plan as a whole, and the DRI boundary, which will undergo some revision. After some discussion, it was decided to add Ives Park and some senior housing to the downtown area where the projects will take place.

As the meetings go on and focus on specific projects, “project profiles” will be developed, to outline budgets, partner input, and “finding outcomes, what is transformational” about the projects.

The members of the committee include local business and other community leaders, including co-chairs Mayor Ron Tischler and SUNY Potsdam President Kristin Esterberg.

“It feels like we won the lottery,” Esterberg said of the grant.

“There’s a lot to be done,” said Mayor Tischler.

In addition to the local members announced earlier, the committee now includes Rose Rivezzi, town councilor and co-owner of The Big Spoon, and Rob Bicknell, vice resident of Bicknell Corporation, who joined after more representation was sought from the Potsdam Chamber of Commerce.

Also on the committee are several “partners” from the Albany area, including consultants who will lend technical assistance to the job of selecting priorities and aligning projects with the appropriate state agencies for funding, and a local state government representative.

There was discussion of next steps, including scheduling further meetings of the committee – the next is tentatively scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 21 – and public workshops, where ideas for projects not included in the grant application will be taken, and opinions will be solicited from the public. The first of those will probably be in February.