| Downtown Facade Program Considers Changes |
| Monday, December 22, 2008 8:41:01 AM - Middletown Ohio |
 By: Tara Kunkle
Middletown City Council will be considering an ordinance at its next meeting on January 6th. This would re-enact and amend the Downtown Facade Renovation Program. This was first brought up in the meeting on December 16th. It would help the spark downtown redevelopment where the former City Center Mall was located on Central Avenue.
Martin Kohler said the program was originally designed to encourage property owners to repair the upper floors of those buildings with a $5,000 forgivable loan per building that reduces $1,000 a year over five years. It also provides a $10,000 matching loan. The program will extend through all of Central Avenue and to all properties in the Urban Core district. So far only eight property owners have used the program.
The requirement of a mortage to obtain the forgivable loan and convert it to an outright grant would be dropped with the new ordinance. But if the matching loan is used a mortage will still be required.
The City Council has also approved the purchase of nine police cruisers and a new chassis for a city ambulance. All of the new police cruisers will be in use. Eight of them will be replacing the old cruisers and the ninth one will be replacing a cruiser that was totaled in an accident last year.
The city will also be purchasing a new chassis from Life Star Rescue Inc. This will replace an ambulance and will reuse the ambulance module from the current vehicle. If they re-use the module it will save the city around $60,000. |
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