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Public weighs in on their priorities for the $10 million DRI prize

By Howard B. Owens

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One of the five criteria for members of the Local Planning Committee to consider in selecting which projects to forward to the state as part of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative is "community input." 

About 30 members of the public turned out Thursday night at City Hall for their chance to weigh in on the projects they think most deserving of a portion of the $10 million DRI prize the state awarded to Batavia in October.

Each participant received a strip of stickers, two red for their top priorities, and one each of green, blue and yellow.

A new marquee and new seats for Batavia Showtime Theaters was the crowd favorite with a total of 17 little round stickers on its project board.

The theater is owned by local businessman Ken Mistler. His other DRI project, Carr's Reborn, was also popular, getting 15 stickers, and 12 of those were red, the most of any project. 

The Healthy Living Campus received 16 stickers, with nine red.

The public market also got 16, with six red.

The Batavia Player's project, Theater 56, received 14 stickers, and six of those were red.

The complete street project for Ellicott Street received 11 stickers, four red.

Ellicott Place received 10 stickers, four red.

GO ART! rounds out the other favorites, among the 25 total projects, with eight stickers, five red.

The other four criteria for the LPC to consider are the readiness of the project, the project's consistency with establishing planning documents, the catalytic potential of the project (can it drive more development), and the ratio of grant request vs. the amount of money being put in by the project developer.

The LPC has two more meetings before sending its recommendations to the state. The next meeting will be a report from consultants who will answer questions raised about projects during the process. At the final meeting, the committee will whittle down the 25 projects to those with no more than $15 million in funding requests.

The state will take that recommended list and select projects with requests of no more than $10 million.

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James Burns

It is beyond my comprehension as to why the good people of this town would like to put money into a privately owned movie theater. Movie theater ticket sales are on the decline and have been for many years. This is why the theater closed once. In my opinion you keep a business like this open by frequently paying to see a movie. It appears this is not happening. If it was well attended the movie theater could afford to buy their own seats. Right? So now we will pay for better seats that will lower the number of total seats in the theater that already does not get enough box office receipts?

Feb 10, 2018, 2:39pm Permalink
Ed Hartgrove

Of course, you're right, James.
It makes about as much sense as opening up a Brand New, Better Than Ever, Blockbuster Video Rental Center.

Feb 10, 2018, 6:11pm Permalink

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