Major Money for Mt. Morris

Reported by: Liz Medhin
Email: lmedhin@13wham.com
Last Update: 10/20 8:54 am

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Money for Mt. Morris

Mt. Morris, N.Y. – Mt. Morris has received a state grant to beautify its downtown. Leaders say it's exciting, but what's more exciting is the buzz it's created in the business community.

Downtown Mt. Morris has seen better days, but residents hope that with a little work, better days will return again. It's why Lee Bancroft moved her financial planning business from Monroe County to the Livingston County town -- she saw promise.

"We go from Syracuse, to Buffalo, to the Pennsylvania border, and we chose to put our business in Mt. Morris," Bancroft said. "Because it's an awesome area if you really think about it. First of all, it's very centrally located. We are 90-seconds from 390. We are an hour away from Corning. We are an hour away from Buffalo. For business, Mt. Morris is probably the best treasure out there and nobody knows about Mt. Morris. That's the exciting part about it."

The close proximity to 390 also worked against Mt. Morris because people could easily get on 390 and get to the malls -- not visiting their local stores. That left downtown Mt. Morris with empty storefronts.

The village now has more than $400,000 to..."unlock a lot of potential here that we have in Mt. Morris," said Mayor Harold Long.

That means beautifying store fronts and residential facades. The offer of money has helped get a huge stack of proposals from business owners and developers since April.

"We're going to start reviewing them today," Long said.

For some, the money for revitalization is not as attractive as the thought of revitalization itself. In fact, many are opting to get working now...without grant money.

"By the time we're finished, people will have put in more than a million dollars of their own money and they're not waiting,” Bancroft said. “That really says something about what people want today.”

Mt. Morris will start allocating the money to business owners and developers next month.

There's already word of a new coffee shop and a dance studio headed for downtown.

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