Revitalization fund drive starts
December 5, 2008
ECO Staff – Laure Cioffi, senior journalist


ELLWOOD CITY – Bringing foot traffic back to downtown is key to the plans of the Ellwood City Revitalization committee.

But before those plans can come to fruition, money is needed to make the improvements and changes.

The revitalization committee kicked off its formal fund raising campaign this week putting a large sign with a red thermometer up in front of the Ellwood City Municipal Building to detail the progress.

Lenore Bazzichi, president of the ECR committee, said they have already raised several thousand dollars. On Thursday Bazzichi, Patti Kuhn, in charge of promotions for ECR, and Ellwood City Councilwoman Angela Valvano accepted a $5,000 check from Evan Tinstman of Huntington Bank.

Bazzichi said donations have been received from ESB and National City banks also, but the committee will need help from the entire community to meet its $330,000 goal.

“The community has to be invested. In the long run, everybody has to take part. It’s going to be harder than we thought (with the economy). We are going to have to be creative on how we find the money,” she said.

Bank accounts have been set up at all three banks and donations for as little as 50 cents to a dollar can
be made to the fund while people are doing their banking, Bazzichi said.

Bazzichi said in addition to public fund raising the committee is seeking grants from private foundations and money from the state and federal governments.

While the committee has drafted a plan for downtown, members only revealed a small portion this week to coincide with the fund raising drive.

They hope to build on the success of the recently revived farmer’s market by constructing a permanent structure somewhere along Beaver Avenue.

The open-air building will be constructed to resemble the former train station located along the tracks.

“The intent is to have the farmer’s market augment everything else we are doing in town,” said Dan Franus, an architect who is also on the ECR committee.

Those plans will be revealed at another town hall meeting at 6:30 p.m. Feb. 3 at the Sons of Italy Hall. The meeting will be just a few days shy of the one-year mark of the first meeting where nearly 150 residents met and made suggestions for the city’s revitalization.

“What we have directly grew from the feedback,” said Angela Valvano, Ellwood City councilwoman who is part of the revitalization committee.

They also note the success of the informal farmer’s market that was held in the municipal parking lot off of Beaver Avenue.

“When you went to the farmer’s market, you saw the look in people’s eyes. They were so happy to be outside and interacting,” Valvano said.

Franus said a permanent structure will allow the farmer’s market to continue and other activities.

“We look at how many thousands of people come to the arts festival and that’s a single weekend. And even the number of people were able to bring in with a very informal farmer’s market,” he said. “This we will be able to use year round.”

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