While many of Pittsburg’s downtown business owners have improved their façades, Pittsburg City Commissioners said they could start a program to work on the rest of the building.
Citing the waning interest in Phase II of the façade grant program, commissioners have expressed an interest in extending the program’s guidelines.
“Some of the people that came forward when we brought the façade grant program to the commission said they hoped or wished they could use the money for their internal structures or their roofs, or to work on the plumbing or electrical,” said Pittsburg Mayor Rudy Draper. “We wound up just setting the guidelines for the façade or the rear of the property.
“But we’ve talked about it several times,” Draper said. “With the very few applicants we’ve had in the last six months, we may need to expand that to include those kinds of items. If it can help them out, alleviate some costs, and if we have the money available, it’s something we should look at.”
An expanded program hasn’t received a formal look yet, but Patrick O’Bryan, a commissioner and downtown business owner, said the program would likely receive more interest.
“You can’t just dress up the front of the building without making the building water-tight. You shouldn’t put a fancy façade on something that isn’t usable or if you can’t keep the building up,” O’Bryan said. “It all starts at the roof of the property.
“I’ve been a proponent of this for some time,” O’Bryan said. “And I think others have decided it might be the correct thing to do.”
Draper said a possible side benefit would be if building owners would use the funds to buff up their structure and safety measures, such as firewalls.
“Anything that would help the safety of downtown or would help bring the buildings up to code would be great,” Draper said. “Most of the buildings are probably around 100 years old. So there’s a need there for infrastructure and safety improvements.”
Draper said building owners interested in an expanded building program probably wouldn’t have to wait long.
“I think this is one of our goals that could be attained in the next three to six months,” Draper said. “We have the available funds, and nobody is using them as the way we have them set up now. So if we were to change the criteria a bit, we could probably get something worked up and go with it.”
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While many of Pittsburg’s downtown business owners have improved their façades, Pittsburg City Commissioners said they could start a program to work on the rest of the building.
Citing the waning interest in Phase II of the façade grant program, commissioners have expressed an interest in extending the program’s guidelines.
“Some of the people that came forward when we brought the façade grant program to the commission said they hoped or wished they could use the money for their internal structures or their roofs, or to work on the plumbing or electrical,” said Pittsburg Mayor Rudy Draper. “We wound up just setting the guidelines for the façade or the rear of the property.
“But we’ve talked about it several times,” Draper said. “With the very few applicants we’ve had in the last six months, we may need to expand that to include those kinds of items. If it can help them out, alleviate some costs, and if we have the money available, it’s something we should look at.”
An expanded program hasn’t received a formal look yet, but Patrick O’Bryan, a commissioner and downtown business owner, said the program would likely receive more interest.
“You can’t just dress up the front of the building without making the building water-tight. You shouldn’t put a fancy façade on something that isn’t usable or if you can’t keep the building up,” O’Bryan said. “It all starts at the roof of the property.
“I’ve been a proponent of this for some time,” O’Bryan said. “And I think others have decided it might be the correct thing to do.”
Draper said a possible side benefit would be if building owners would use the funds to buff up their structure and safety measures, such as firewalls.
“Anything that would help the safety of downtown or would help bring the buildings up to code would be great,” Draper said. “Most of the buildings are probably around 100 years old. So there’s a need there for infrastructure and safety improvements.”
Draper said building owners interested in an expanded building program probably wouldn’t have to wait long.
“I think this is one of our goals that could be attained in the next three to six months,” Draper said. “We have the available funds, and nobody is using them as the way we have them set up now. So if we were to change the criteria a bit, we could probably get something worked up and go with it.”
