Royersford Revitalization Taking Form

The county commissioner's office recently released grant funds to multiple municipalities in the Montgomery County area, including $40,000 to Hatboro, according to a July 12 story on PhillyBurbs.com. The article says other municipalities receiving the grant - which covers costs to upgrading Main Street areas in the region - include Cheltenham, Conshohocken, Jenkintown, Lower Merion, Norristown, Schwenksville and Royersford.

According to Royersford borough manager Michael Leonard, the borough received a letter on July 15 announcing its $324,000 grant for the Main Street revitalization. Leonard said revitalization efforts would be made to streetlights, repaving the sidewalks, brick between the sidewalks and curbs and curbs would be replaced as needed. The grant was announced, according to Leonard, in the subsequent borough council meeting.

"We didn’t hear anything from the community, but we’re going to do this, because it’s money the county is giving us," Leonard said. "It’s basically free money, that’s why we’re doing this. We have to put money to it. Maybe after this phase, we have to be more cautious of what we’re doing because of the economy and stuff."

Leonard sees the grant as a positive for the community.

"It’s a really good thing and we’re happy the county commissioner is doing this for us," said Leonard. "Without the county’s help, we wouldn’t be able to have Main Street look the way it looks today."

Royersford has until December of next year to complete to project, which will renovate between 4th and 5th Avenues. Leonard said the borough is doing some preliminary work right now and after surveys are put out, they will begin putting out the bid on construction to get started, which should happen by spring.

One part of the revitalization is including the new Rite Aid, which is in the developmental stages. Leonard said they could start building as early as fall and the store would comply with the downtown "look" that the rest of the storefronts have, with the exception of the many vacancies along the strip.

"What we really need is for people to start renting some storefronts. That’s what we need the most," Leonard said. "I’ve been always pushing for it. The economy right now doesn’t allow it. It’s so hard to get somebody into town because of the economy. If it was better, we’d have most of them filled up."

Leonard also hoped that landlords would clean up the storefronts or sell them.

"That would be my suggestion," said Leonard. "We’re working hard here in Royersford to try to make our borough look very nice. We’re out making sure the property maintenance codes are being adhered to. We’re trying to get the grass cut and take care of the properties, but we have landlords that don’t care. We have some properties on Main Street that really need to be taken care of."

The plan is a simple one for the borough, according to Leonard: raise property values after we get out of the current state of the economy.

"We’re trying to make improvements to the borough that will ultimately, after the economy gets better, raise the property values in the borough," Leonard said.