If you live or work in Arkville, Fleischmanns, or Margaretville, your ideas for creating a more vibrant, flourishing downtown district might help unlock $10 million in state funding.
Middletown is applying for a $10 million competitive state Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) grant to boost downtown revitalization in the villages of Fleischmanns and Margaretville and the hamlet of Arkville. New York’s DRI program is aimed at reinvigorating Main Streets, supporting walkable communities, and enhancing the quality of life in downtown areas.
New York State’s DRI program, launched in 2016, is currently in its eighth round of applications. This year, a community in each of the state’s 10 economic development regions will be selected to receive a $10 million award. Smaller and more rural communities can also apply for the state’s NY Forward program, which will award $4.5 million to two communities in each economic development region.
This year, the DRI program will accept applications from two or three contiguous communities in the same economic development region that have a unified vision for downtown development. The town of Middletown and the two villages that lie within its borders recently held a joint board meeting — the first in the history of the three municipalities — to pursue a collaborative approach to enhancing the downtown business districts of Arkville, Fleischmanns, and Margaretville, which are connected by the Route 28 Catskills Scenic Byway and by the historic Delaware and Ulster Railroad.
Public engagement is critical to the application process. The Middletown DRI committee will hold its first meeting seeking public input Thursday, Sept. 5, at 5 p.m. at Union Grove Distillery, Arkville. All who live and work in the Middletown area are encouraged to attend. Other public meetings will be scheduled to gather input, and the Middletown DRI committee also has a website where people can submit project ideas: townofmiddletowndri.com
Applications for New York State’s DRI program are due Oct. 18. With just under two months to prepare an application, the three municipalities are seeking local stakeholders with an interest in proposing projects, or volunteering to help with the application process, to get involved early.
