DOWNTOWN RECOGNITION AWARD 
Frank Elia  

DOWNTOWN ROCHESTER CALENDAR OF EVENTS    

Outdoor Patios

This summer, Brighton Avenue will show off two new outdoor patios. Hollywood Gardens owner, Frank Elia, is planning to build a second patio on his property, which will be accessible from Brighton Avenue. Uncle Chuck's is also adding outdoor dining space to its property.

Business Expansion

Crayons has moved from 216 to 140 Brighton Avenue in order to expand their services.

Round-About

Construction is moving along and they are on schedule to complete the project in July.

Police Up Downtown

Rochester police will be starting foot patrol at the beginning of May on Brighton Avenue.  The patrol will run from 11:30 PM to 2:30 AM. This is in conjunction with Mayor Scriva's efforts to help clean up the downtown and make it safer.

Spring Clean-Up!

Please clean your storefront windows, sweep the sidewalks, apply new paint where needed and generally provide an inviting look to your property.

The Rochester Bloomers will be weeding and planting flowers in the parks and planters very soon. If you would like to volunteer, they could use your help!

The BCTA (Beaver County Transit Authority) is now allowing businesses to advertise and post specials on the Community Bulletin Board, which is located in the bus terminal on West Washington Street. This is a wonderful way to let travelers know what is going on in the downtown and to promote your business.  Make sure you take advantage of this new opportunity to let the community know what services and special events are available to them.

The Rochester Bloomers are greatly in need of your help!  This hard-working group of volunteers takes on the task of cleaning, planting and maintaining our community gardens.  Each spring and summer, our downtown enjoys the fruits of their labor: attractive and colorful planters and parks.  The group is now down to only ONE volunteer and needs your community spirit.  Please consider donating a few hours this spring and summer to volunteer in the beautification project.  If you are interested, please contact Betty Murtha at 724-775-7235 

With the Assistance of
Carnegie Mellon University Mastes Students

Through a partnership between Sustainable Pittsburgh and Town Center Associates (TCA), local communities have benefitted from the insight and expertise of Carnegie Mellon University students who were taking the "Sustainable Community" course, taught by professor, Dr. Matthew Mehalik (also of Sustainable Pittsburgh).

Participating communities selected a key project in their business district for which they were seeking fresh perspective and ideas. The students worked over the course of the semester in Aliquippa, Monaca, and New Brighton, visiting the communities, interviewing community members and conducting hours of research and analysis on the important business district projects.

The students presented their findings at a final symposium held at Carnegie Mellon University, and their final reports will soon be available on Sustainable Pittsburgh's website. The findings may be relevant to many of the issues your downtown may be facing, or projects you may want to pursue in the future. Topics in the reports include:

· Creating a Sustainable Downtown Park

·  Improving the Access Route from the Business District to an Important Community Park

· Developing Business District Wayfinding Systems

· Enhancing a Downtown Theater/Anchor Business

· And much more!

Town Center is grateful for the opportunity to work with the CMU students and Sustainable Pittsburgh, and we look forward to incorporating their suggestions into helping your community build a more sustainable business district.

There is a fantastic new resource from the Housing Alliance of Pennsylvania that provides expertise and guidance in handling a host of issues related to downtown vacant property/land and blight issues.

This "NEW TOOLS QUICK GUIDE" provides a compilation and brief description of state laws recently enacted for Pennsylvania's communities to address the problem of vacant, abandoned and blighted private property.  

Check out the "New Tools Quick Guide". 

Thanks to the Downtown First business directory, it has never been easier or faster to find what you are looking for in your downtown. Downtown First provides a free and easy-to-use online AND printable business directory for your downtown as well as approximately 20 other business districts in the region.

You can search for businesses by:

· Downtown: including your downtown and many nearby communities!

· Business Type: such as antiques or restaurants and cafes

· Keywords: such as the business name or a specific services you are looking for

Downtown First is leading the movement to support local businesses by making it possible for you to narrow your search to include only local, independent businesses....and making it easier for you to support them!

Remember to "put your money where your house is" by supporting your downtown businesses...first!

Help to market the vacant and/or available properties in your downtown with TCA's FREE DowntownProperties.net poster!

Placing the colorful DowntownProperties.net poster in your window will let everyone passing by know that it is available, whether your property is vacant or still being occupied.  

Most importantly, the poster can direct those interested in your property to DowntownProperties.net, where they can access important information about the property, such as contact information, address square footage, a photograph, community demographics, and more!   

If you are interested in a free poster for your property, please contact Town Center Associates at 724-728-9400 or tca@towncenter.info.

You are reading the Rochester FOCUS: your quarterly downtown e-newsletter. By using e-newsletters instead of print newsletters, we can send the information about our downtown revitalization efforts to a greater number of people and save paper--a win for the community and the environment!     

To receive your copy of the e-newsletter via email, simply send an email to tca@towncenter.info and indicate your email address, as well as the name of the town or towns for which you'd like to receive the e-newsletters. You can also call Town Center Associates to sign up at 724-728-9400.      

Please also take a moment to forward this email along to your friends, colleagues, family and neighbors, and encourage them to sign up today! This will help to inform (and involve) more citizens about the revitalization efforts taking place in our downtown.