NY Main Street program gets extended

Story Created: Sep 22, 2009 at 6:07 PM EST

Story Updated: Sep 22, 2009 at 6:09 PM EST

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WKTV) - The goal of the New York Main Street Program is to get a helping hand from the state government to provide dollars to revitalize downtown districts. Now it has been expanded in a way that could bring in more money to the city of Utica.

The program has been around for five years, but was limited in many ways. One, it was only given out to not for profits trying to make it in downtown districts, and two it had a $200,000 cap on how much they could receive.

Now the program has been extended to allow municipalities to receive the funding, and at a much larger, $500,000 maximum. The Governor signed the new measures into law, and now city officials will compete to get the grants.

Mayor Roefaro says will try to secure as much as he can from a program he believes spurs economic development. "This is for other development, there are other people who are now investing in downtown Utica when they see everyone else is investing they start investing." said Roefaro. "We just got the $2.1 million Restore N.Y. grant, that was really a great grant for downtown Utica. These grants, the Main Street grant, is something for small business because small business is the backbone of our society." Roefaro said.

To get an edge, Roefaro says once it comes time to get the grant written he will hand deliver it himself to Albany like he says he does for all the other grants that Utica receives.
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