MONTICELLO – Local business owners,
public officials and residents of the Monticello area met Monday to discuss
the future of the village and “re-branding” the community
as part of the Plan B: “Rebranding Monticello and Rebuilding the
Village in the Post Jenkins Era.”Gordon Jenkins was mayor of Monticello
until recently when a judge removed him from office for official misconduct.
Village Manager David Sager says cleaning up Broadway is a priority
The seminar, held at Miss Monticello Diner, was organized by Steven Kurlander of Kurlander Communications as part of a series of Plan B seminars being held throughout Sullivan County.
Attendees of the event shared ideas on how to not only rebrand and rebuild the community but also, how to utilize the imminent influx of visitors that will come with the erection of the casino/resort.
During the session, Monticello was referred to as the “crossroads” of Sullivan County. Kurlander said he hopes the event will harvest ideas for a new brand that will peak the interest of passersby.
“I’m going to try to start branding Monticello, start trying to generating some excitement,” said Kurlander. “I want to be able to show that Monticello has a number of great things here to do so people from Orange County, Ulster County and Pennsylvania come here; getting the traffic to come in instead of going back out.” One thing Kurland is doing to try to accomplish that goal is turning Monticello into a restaurant cluster, one with a large selection of eateries that will make it a destination for dining.
Monticello Village Manager David Sager is already working on Broadway and it is, in fact, the “next part of the plan.” He said he hopes within the next month, an official think-tank for the cause will be created and will yield some results within four to six months. In the meantime, Sager said he is working on cleanup and property owner investment.
“From my standpoint, if you’re looking at Broadway, it’s to have building owners reinvest in their properties and to actively market themselves to try to attract small businesses,” Sager said. “I don’t think that was always done in the past, so, I’m asking for a much greater involvement from the current property owners to do that. I’m doing everything I can in terms of cleaning up Broadway, in terms of doing community policing and we’re going to make Broadway shine and be a safe welcoming place.”
Robert Dadras, a former coordinator for the Downtown Revitalization Center of the Sullivan County Planning Department and contributor to the Hyatt Palmer Monticello Downtown Development District Study, said strategizing a way to get casino patrons to spend money locally is an important part of this plan.
“Really, the bigger discussion is: how are you going to bring money to Monticello,” said Dadras. “You’re going to have people coming to this gigantic casino, entertainment, amusement complex; how are you going to get them to leave there and come to Broadway to spend money. That’s got to be part of the next part of the plan.”
