"A place of culture, commerce and community" is what Dave Dayton, chairman of the Grove City Revitalization Inc., called the vision he has for the downtown business section of Grove City.

The nonprofit revitalization group presented its plans to revitalize the downtown area at a public meeting Tuesday night, which was attended by more than 100 people. The preliminary schedule has project completion three years from May and the cost is estimated at about $6 million.

"We quickly acknowledge that that alone does not solve the problem," Dayton said, of bringing in more customers for the downtown businesses. "We are aware of that and are taking steps to address those issues."

The project covers 1.65 miles of streets, including parts of South Broad, South Center, Pine and Blair streets.

Calling the downtown area the "Grove City Development Park," Rod Garrison encouraged people at the meeting to see the area as one entity which has 77 businesses and almost 400 employees as a whole. Garrison is an associate and urban planner with E.G.&G. Inc. of Akron, which was hired by the revitalization group to come up with the plans.

"Seen that way, it is one of the top 10 employers in the area," Dayton said. "The downtown has a major economic impact to the area."

Garrison pointed out the strengths of the area: four banks, three churches, the post office, the borough building and the Guthrie movie theater. He described some of the buildings as "landmark structures."

Dayton and Garrison used photos of the downtown area to point out its weaknesses.

"We tend to get blinders on when it comes to the things we see everyday in the downtown," said Dayton. "You get startled by those things that we don't even see."

Some of those things were cracked pavement and broken curbs, a sky full of overhead utility wires, a lack of signs giving directions to the downtown and empty storefronts. Things that couldn't be photographed are poor drainage from the broken curbs, no curbs in some spots and poor lighting from inadequate street lights, Garrison said.

Ways to address these problems include new partly bricked sidewalks with appropriate curbs and handicap ramps on corners, underground conduits for utility wires and decorative street lamps that will double as holders for holiday lighting and hanging plants, and downtown direction and entrance signs.

Garrison emphasized the importance of redoing and upgrading the area's infrastructure, which will cost about $3 million. Infrastructure has to do with anything related to sidewalks, curbs and streets, Dayton said, adding that the blacktop on streets will need to be milled to its lowest point to increase the height of the curbs.

About $1.5 million will go toward street lighting. The other 25 percent of the $6 million project is made up of landscaping, redoing public parking lots, taking overhead wires underground and contingency.

Half of the funding for the project would need to come from state and federal coffers. Less than 20 percent would come from the private sector, and about 40 percent would need to be covered by the borough. Covering more than half of the cost locally would address the issue of getting matching state and federal grants, Dayton said.

Options suggested for the borough include a low-interest loan or general obligation note, with the cost spread over 20 years. Such a loan or obligation would find its way to the taxpayers of the community.

But, Dayton said, the risk of not acting is greater. "What's the cost to the community if we don't do this?" he asked.

You can e-mail Herald Staff Writer Sherris Moreira-Byers at sbyers@sharonherald.com