$10 Million Possibilities for Port Jervis
A $10 million New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant was awarded to Port Jervis. What will be funded is yet to be decided.
A group of picnic tables in Riverside Park in Port Jervis was the site of a brainstorm two years ago that recently resulted in a $10 million NYS Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant for the city. Leading the group of about 15 were architect and sustainability expert Jeremy Shannon, Mayor Kelly Decker and Valerie Maginsky, Port Jervis Community Development Agency Executive Director. Local officials and interested residents who gathered were asked to submit their ideas for city betterment. Maginsky later used some of those ideas in writing the grant application.
“The initial pitch is an overview of potential projects downtown,” said Decker. “Soon they will advise us of a committee set up with the state and other parties to actually decide what the $10 million will go towards. The plan will most likely change.”
Key parts of the plan include walkways from the train station to the historic turntable in the trainyard and to the business district intersection at Front and Pike Streets; municipal parking lot reconfiguration at Pike and Front Streets to improve access; bathroom facilities both at the municipal lot on Front St. and at the turntable, where the Port Jervis Transportation History Center is being set up, overseen by the Outdoor Club of Port Jervis. The Center will make use of the city’s train hub history and old train cars, among other lore and paraphernalia.
Riverside Park, which has benefitted from paths, a pumptrack and disc golf, added by the Outdoor Club, would be further “developed,” Decker said. “Much of the vision for the park has been created by the Outdoor Club. Having activities drawing people there and having a connection to downtown will draw people downtown.”
The park would be connected to downtown by a walkway over the railroad at Fowler St., which would link a section of the city now cordoned off by train tracks and add more parking.
Among other items in the plan are redevelopment of a historic water tower with a welcome sign in Riverside Park and completing unfinished floors in buildings downtown.
Asked what parts of the plan would have the greatest impact on the city, Decker said, “Rehabilitation of buildings downtown with living units above the first floor and connecting our Riverside area to the downtown. If the local committee commits funds to redevelopment of second and third floors, it would be open to any building owner downtown who wants to pursue those developments.”
As for grant project timeframe, he said, “Planning should be completed by December 2023 with construction soon after. They want the money spent within three years.”
A municipality can receive the DRI grant only once. Asked why this year’s application succeeded, Decker credited “the synergy between Port Jervis, the county, tourism, the state and other agencies, as well as the annexation of Deerpark industrial property, the growth of downtown and the growth of the city’s hiking and biking trails.”
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