Support seen for Oconto Falls downtown plan

A plan to hire a consultant to draft a downtown Oconto Falls revitalization plan drew general support at a public hearing Aug. 18.

The City Council, the city Main Street Committee and Oconto County Economic Development Corp. are working together to apply for a $75,000 planning grant from the Community Development Block Grant-CLOSE program, so named because the money comes from the now-closed revolving-fund loan program that CDBG once funded.

Paul Ehrfurth, executive director of OCEDC, said downtown Oconto Falls has lagged economically since an extension of Highland Avenue in the 1970s created a de facto bypass for travelers using state Highway 22 to get from east to west.

The consultant would be asked to develop strategies to revitalize an approximately 50-parcel area of downtown Oconto Falls that has seen better days, he said.

An attempt to spark redevelopment around 1986 faltered because organizers didn’t achieve much buy-in from the business community, Ehrfurth said.

“When the last study was done, it really didn’t involve enough of the business owners and the general public and the residents in that area,” he said. “Consequently really not much evolved out of that study … What’s going to make this successful, or at least have a chance of being successful, is being involved on an ongoing basis between the consultant, the committee, property owners.”

A strategic plan might involve programs to improve storefront facades, microloans and similar efforts to “get some synergy growing,” Ehrfurth said.

In response to a question, he said that although the plan itself would not provide funding for business improvements, a number of tools are available to help implement any proposals, such as grants, loans or even creating a tax-increment funding district.

“It’s important to do it right this time; it’s important to do it in concert with the business community and property owners,” he said.

The city of Oconto Falls returned about $1.7 million to the state Department of Administration when its revolving-fund loan program was closed. The Aug. 18 hearing covered two projects totaling about $1.2 million — the other being a renovation of the senior and community center — so the city and OCEDC are working to develop a third application for the other $500,000 that is potentially available.

During his monthly report to the Oconto County Board on Aug. 20, Ehrfurth said the third project may involve street reconstruction.

“We have to be able to demonstrate very clearly through income surveys that 51% of the projects served low- to moderate-income families,” he said, citing one of the key components for CDBG eligibility.

wbluhm@newmedia-wi.com