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Nelsonville town meeting airs development plans including movie studio
2003-02-24
By Nick Claussen
Athens NEWS Associate Editor
Bringing along ideas such as renovating buildings, creating new art houses and even starting a movie studio in order to help Nelsonville grow, city residents gathered for a second town meeting last week.
The first town meeting was held late last year at Hocking College. At that meeting, several residents made announcements about their businesses or organizations and offered up suggestions on improvements that could be made to the city.
This second meeting was set up to gather more ideas and to discuss the Appalachian Regional Coalition (ARC) funding that is being given to Nelsonville to complete a project of its choice.
Steve Stone, chairman of the committee planning the ARC project in Nelsonville, led the Wednesday night meeting, which was held at the Elks Lodge in Nelsonville.
The ARC is paying for consultants to work with Nelsonville leaders to decide on a project and then obtain grant money to make the project a reality, Stone said. The project is not a one-time deal; instead it will set up a process under which Nelsonville leaders can seek more grants and work on more projects to improve the city, Stone said.
Joy Padgett, director of the Governor's Office of Appalachia, said that Nelsonville was chosen for this program because it has real opportunity for growth. She added that while skeptics have tried to link this project with the U.S. Rt. 33 bypass project for Nelsonville, they are not related in any way and she believes people should get behind the ARC project to help the city grow.
Hocking College President John Light said that group leaders have tentatively decided that the project will focus on building renovation in Nelsonville. The group does not want to renovate only one building, but would like to renovate several buildings in the city and help fill them with thriving businesses or turn them into housing, Light said.
While the state and national economy is struggling, Light said that now is the time to take action. Hocking College is developing new programs in order to help its students and the region, Light said. Projects such as this will continue to help the people and revitalize the city.
"In Nelsonville, it won't do us any good to have one more pizza shop," Light said, stressing that he was not slamming pizza restaurants and that he likes those in Nelsonville now. "The idea is to find something that is a new market."
Hocking College is doing this, he said, through programs such as its new fuel cell institute, a theater arts program working with Stuart's Opera House, and a new partnership with the Foothills School of American Crafts.
"We're moving ahead," Light said.
Jennie Freidhof, assistant district ranger for the Wayne National Forest, told the group that the U.S. Forest Service has several ideas for helping the city grow either through new activities at the forest or through partnerships with the city and area groups.
One particular item that Freidhof mentioned briefly was a possible land exchange program that could be worked out with Nelsonville to help with developing the city.
Rachel Young, director of the Foothills School of American Crafts, said she liked the idea of renovating buildings and improving the overall look of the city. Too often, she said, people drive through town on Canal Street (U.S. Rt. 33) and see a part of the city that looks drab and old, and they never make their way over to the Public Square or the other nice areas of Nelsonville.
If the city could improve its look and do more to encourage people to go into the square and other areas, it might help with growth, she said.
Young added that the square has received a lot of publicity lately and was recently featured in articles in Pittsburgh and New York City newspapers.
"Nelsonville is growing; there is nothing that can stop us," Young said.
Aaron Smith, another artist working on the square, said he is very concerned that three historic buildings may soon be torn down and turned into private parking lots. A fourth building, the former city hall, may also be torn down, though there are no current plans for that, Smith said.
Tearing these buildings down would hurt the character of the city at a time when it is growing and would not provide any help with parking to the general public, since the parking lots would be private, he said.
Dorothy Gettle said she hopes to have the old high school and junior high building saved and turned into housing or another use. She said she has been working on this project for three years and is no closer than when she started to getting the buildings saved. She said groups such as cheerleaders are using some of the space in the buildings, but there's no heat and the buildings could be used for many other uses if they were renovated.
Others at the meeting agreed with Gettle, saying the building should be saved, along with other buildings that could be renovated.
Jill Costa told the group that the city needs a bus service to help get people to and from work, and that more needs to be done to get new businesses started in the region. She said factories are no longer going to locate in this area and the city needs to help bring about new growth.
David Williams, who said he recently moved to the area from Toronto, offered some new ideas for growth. He suggested that vineyards could be started in the area and said that a grant was recently awarded to an area group to start some vineyards here. He said a "wine train" could run through the vineyards and attract tourists.
Williams also said he plans on starting a film school/studio in Nelsonville that would create four films every year and attract actors, movie industry officials and his "Hollywood friends" to the city during the making of movies and for movie premieres. Williams said more housing will be needed in the city for his students and the people who will be working at the studio.
Several people in attendance seemed skeptical of Williams' plans, since he was talking about lofty goals and offered few specifics. They did laud him for thinking "outside the box," though, and said that more of that is needed to help Nelsonville continue to grow.
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