GEORGETOWN — Georgetown Town Council approved a revitalization plan for its downtown Monday night, but now it’s up to the town to see the process through.
Kathy Haller, a Georgetown council member, has lived in the town for 47 years. When she moved to the area, it was “the prettiest little” place.
“I want that back,” she said.
The revitalization plan, paid for in part by a $40,000 grant from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs, sets out goals and implementation guidelines to do just that.
Among the plan’s suggestions for the town are the implementation of demolition, maintenance, renovation and design guidelines to keep the appearance of the town’s buildings up, the creation of a historic preservation commission, more sidewalks, lighting and parking in some parts of the downtown area, and the creation of a “town square” from Engleman Drive to Kelly Avenue.
Each goal for Georgetown outlined in the plan has a “short-term,” “medium-term” and “long-term” designation for implementation, and all are optional despite Georgetown’s town council’s unanimous adoption of the plan at Monday’s meeting.
“We certainly hope they do [implement the plan],” said Tricia McClellan, a principal of one of the companies who helped draft it.
To help the town, the plan’s authors included steps for seeing it through.
The first, and most important ones, are solidifying partnerships between the town and other organizations and creating a community investment plan, McClellan said.
Creating partnerships will give the town some much-needed assistance with revitalizing the downtown. Some possible ones are between the town and Indiana Landmarks, the Floyd County Redevelopment Commission and Main Street organizations, such as Destination: Georgetown.
A community investment plan will ensure that a portion of the town’s discretionary money is systematically allocated to revitalization (and not just fixing potholes).
After those are established, McClellan sees creating a historic preservation commission and forming a local investment group as preferable next steps toward changing Georgetown.
The historic preservation committee would protect older local buildings. The investment group, made up of people interested in the fate of the town, would buy those buildings and help market them to deserving new businesses.
Movers and shakers in Georgetown are already looking at tackling some of McClellan’s suggestions.
Bob Campbell, one of the community members behind Destination: Georgetown, knows he wants to help the board’s members improve the area.
“Georgetown main street organizations are going to be big cheerleader of the program,” he said.
The downtown plan says that Destination: Georgetown could be the “arms and legs” of the revitalization, helping to carry out some of the projects listed in it, as well as a partner with the town on facade renovations and creating a community investment group.
Chris Loop, a Georgetown councilman, has also already found support for the plan in Greg Sekula, the director of the Southern Regional Office of Indiana Landmarks, who could help the town form a historic preservation commission. Loop also said the town has a good relationship with Don Lopp, the director of the Floyd County Redevelopment Department and county operations.
The redevelopment commission, which has discretionary money for various projects, has taken an interest in Georgetown because it’s one of the gateways into the county, McCllelan said.
She also thinks that Georgetown has the potential to fund the revitalization plan. In addition to the help Georgetown could get from investors, the town receives a $240,000 yearly allotment of casino money, and — by accepting the plan she helped create — has also opened itself up to other grants.
OCRA, the organization that helped Georgetown fund creating a revitalization plan, has several grants that it only makes available to towns that have accepted their plans. There are other grants, too, that Georgetown’s plan will make itself more attractive to, McCllelan said.
But there are some challenges to Georgetown implementing the plan that Loop is well aware of.
“I think everyone in the downtown area wants to see it succeed, but not everyone has the same kind of resources to contribute to it,” he said.
He sees a “question mark” around what type of investors could be brought to Georgetown and how much the town would be able to fund the plan with its budget.
Finally, he’s worried about how long the plan could take to implement. According to McCllelan, even the “short-term” aspects of the plan could take one to five years to accomplish.
Haller and Town Board President Everett Pullen both said they likely won’t be on Georgetown Town Council long enough to see the plan completely through.
But Loop has hope for the plan.
“I think we just have to understand that it’s a guide for what we need to do, what it will involve” he said. “You know, the only way we can work to get it done is you just got to do it one step at a time. One foot in front of the other, and I think that we can do that.”