First thing: Fix the awnings

Strengthening our village centers

SALISBURY — The Village Center Revitalization Project, the most ambitious effort to date from the Northwestern Connecticut Regional Planning Collaborative, is under way.

The group is looking for ways to strengthen town planning from a regional viewpoint.

Consultant Dennis Mincieli of AKRF, an environmental and planning consulting firm based in Willimantic, Conn., said a survey of the village centers in the eight towns in the collaborative (the Region One towns of Cornwall, Falls Village, Kent, North Canaan, Salisbury and Sharon, plus Norfolk and Goshen ) has just been completed.

“We’re counting by type of store, and also looking at physical characteristics,� said Mincieli.

He said he had been in one shop recently, and noticed that one awning was open but sagging, and another half-opened. The display window was dirty and neglected.

“That’s an indicator that they’re not paying attention, and it sends a message to you or me as a shopper.�

And, by extension, such sights “begin to send a negative message about the entire village center.�

The survey also assesses the number of vacancies and the mix of merchandise, breaking the latter down into two broad categories: “shopper’s goods� and “convenience goods.�

Shopper’s goods include clothing/apparel and accessories; furniture/furnishings, and accessories; and general merchandise.

Convenience goods are food, beverages and drugstore items.

The survey also looks for services, such as banks and doctors offices.

“The inclination,� said Mincieli, “is to go close to home.�

The surveyors are  “looking for holesâ€� — gaps in available goods and services that might cause shoppers to keep moving to towns with a more complete package.

“We blend that in with other, demographic data from the collaborative — how many people, how many households, what they’re earning.�

And the consultants consider “capture ratesâ€� — the percentage of consumer dollars that are spent in the village centers by full-time residents, and how much comes from people from further afield — Torrington, Great Barrington,  Mass., or Pine Plains, N.Y., for instance.

On Tuesday, April 20, the collaborative is holding focus group sessions with business owners operating in the village centers, at the Falls Village Senior Center (7 p.m.).

The sessions will use two questions to get the ideas flowing:

1. Are you concerned about the long-term viability of your business or those around you?

2. Do you have ideas about how we can make our village center businesses thrive?

Mincieli said he expects the discussion to get back to “care and attention.�

And by mid-May he expects to have some recommendations.

“We’re looking for a very quick reaction, to get something on the ground.

“Retail is the urgency right now. Later on we’ll start thinking in terms of overall economic development.�

A part-timer in Lakeville for 30 years and a former small business owner himself, Mincieli is fairly optimistic.

The area has good “sources of stability,� he said, with strong employment sectors in education and health care.

And in his experience, people tend to be creative, especially under stress.

“When we do focus groups there is always a surprise.�