By Ashley M. Casey

Associate Editor

Onondaga County has announced the village of Baldwinsville as its first recipient of its Village Main Street Program. B’ville will receive $300,000 to improve sidewalks, streetlights and the façades of several businesses in the village along Genesee Street.

“When we invest in villages, we’re investing in towns as well,” Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon said Feb. 27 at Baldwinsville Village Hall. “We believe that the future is very bright and that’s why we’re investing.”

Baldwinsville is the first of six grant recipients, the rest of which will be announced in the coming weeks. The county plans to invest $1.5 million in the Village Main Street Program.

Private sector contributions bring the total investment in Baldwinsville to around $500,000. Plans for the funds include installing decorative benches and lighting, planting trees and sprucing up sidewalks in a three-block area around Genesee Street.

The proposal also includes facelifts to several businesses. Shelley Hoffman, owner of 315 Realty Partners, said she plans to repaint her 12 Oswego St. storefront Kendall Charcoal from Benjamin Moore’s Historical Collection. Hoffman’s project also includes repairs to brick and mortar, replacement of rotting wood, and repair of the clock facing Baldwin Canal Square.

“To fix the clock to me is a symbol. It reminds me of ‘Back to the Future,’” Hoffman said.

Atlantic Seafood, located at 69 E. Genesee St., and The Deli at 12 W. Genesee St. are also slated to receive upgrades, along with four other storefronts in the corridor.

Baldwinsville Mayor Dick Clarke thanked the county as well as Village Engineer Steve Darcangelo and Code Enforcement Officer Gregg Humphrey for their work on the plan.

“It speaks to the fact that we value our community, and it’s nice now to know that the person at the top of our county values our community too,” Clarke said.

Onondaga County Legislator Brian May (1st District) said the improvements in Baldwinsville are a small piece of the county’s “very dynamic process” to boost economic development in Onondaga County.

The county executive also reiterated his goal of taking over the aging wastewater treatment systems in the county.

“Our local governments have been strapped with the property tax cap and they don’t have the ability to invest in this old infrastructure under the constraints. When those pipes fail, the treatment facility at Seneca Knolls works overtime and that costs more money to you, the rate payers,” McMahon said. “If we don’t have wastewater capacity, communities can’t grow.”