Less than three weeks before its application for a multi-million dollar grant is due, the village of Marathon gave residents a last chance Tuesday at offering input for its New York Forward application.
Village officials and a consultant held an open house at Marathon's Civic Center to let residents suggest projects -- or support others -- as the village puts the finishing touches on the application they hope will bring the village news of a grant -- of up to $4.5 million -- awarded by the state and its NY Forward program.
"They were impressed the last time we applied," said Mayor Scott Chamberlin. Impressed, but not enough to award the grant to the village, though Chamberlin said some of the officials who awarded the grant offered positive feedback.
"They don't usually award the grant the first time a village applies,” Chamberlin said. "But we believed we'd be the exception to that."
The exception instead was the village of Moravia in Cayuga County, which in May was one of two Central New York communities awarded $2.25 million. Hamilton, in Madison County, was the other. The village of Phoenix, in Oswego County, won the most recent $4.5 million award.
The region extends north from Cortland County's southern border to the northern end of Oswego County.
On Thursday, about 20 people wandered through the Civic Center, some gazing at maps of the village of Marathon.
Several visitors chose to attach sticky notes to the map. One woman thought about what the village lacked, or would benefit the village, then wrote "ice-skating rink" on a note she attached to the map.
"Some of these ideas are ones we've seen earlier in the process," noted Rich Cunningham, senior consultant with Thoma Development Consultants, the Cortland-based company assisting Marathon with its application. He said repeated ideas is not a bad thing; such repetition can advance an idea, or simply demonstrate the idea's popularity -- both of which boost the village.
Chamberlin said village officials are particularly enthusiastic that there have been plans to add housing to parts of the proposals. State officials have encouraged increasing the housing supply almost everywhere in New York that development has been proposed.
NY Forward is a companion to New York's Downtown Revitalization Initiatives -- which have provided $10 million awards to Cortland and, more recently, Homer, to upgrade elements of their center cities.
