TURNERS FALLS — A state program to support post-pandemic recovery of downtown business districts has accepted Turners Falls for a grant that will be put toward revitalizing the village’s business community.
“We were just hitting our stride around when COVID hit,” Montague Town Planner Walter Ramsey said of Turners Falls’ development. “Things were going well.”
Now, one year later, many local businesses are struggling, he said.
This state program, offered by the Massachusetts Downtown Initiative, aims to help business districts recover by providing a consultant to help create strategies for achieving community goals.
For Turners Falls, the Montague Planning and Conservation Department’s application for the program focused on rebuilding the community of business owners and other stakeholders, Ramsey said.
“I think we’ve lost a lot through not being able to have connections around events. Turners Falls is very much an event-based community,” Ramsey said. “Our businesses depend on those, and culturally we depend on those to see each other. We lack that now.”
The exact scope of the project and its goals will be driven by the community, and will probably be informed by a series of community forums, Ramsey said.
“We want the community to help drive the discussion we have. The town wants to be responsive to the community’s needs,” he said.
However, the state’s major goal for the program is to identify relatively short-term goals that can realistically be achieved within three to six months, Ramsey said. For example, he said, these goals may take the form of new policies for the town Planning and Conservation Department to implement, or ideas for new event programming.
The study is worth $60,000, but the state matches the town with a consultant, rather than providing funding directly.
The timeframe for the project is not known yet, but it will likely start within the next three months, Ramsey said. More information is expected to be provided to the town within the next week.
Reach Max Marcus at mmarcus@recorder.com or 413-930-4231.