BARC receives $30,000 grant from foundation
BROWNSVILLE – The Brownsville Area Revitalization Corporation (BARC) is continuing its efforts to renovate buildings in town for reuse by future businesses. The nonprofit Community development corporation recently received a $30,000 grant from the Allegheny Foundation that will be used for the Newspapers in Education program in the Brownsville Area School District and for renovations to 27 Market Street. Additional funds for building renovations are being sought through the state Department of Community and Economic Development through state Sen. Richard Kasunic, D-Dunbar and through state Rep. H. William DeWeese, D-Waynesburg.
The BARC board of directors Monday voted to sell the former Hand R Block Building on Market Street for $1,000 with the stipulation that the deed will only be transferred if the building is renovated and ready for occupancy within two years.
“You really bring more money into a town when you renovate because when you renovate, you can use local craftsmen and when you build new you often have to go outside the area,” said Alison McConnell, BARC’s executive director.
BARC is currently working with the State Correctional Institution at Fayette in Luzerne Township, having some repairs done to buildings by trustees at the prison. Prison officials Monday reviewed work that is needed at the Taylor Building on Bank Street and at the former borough building at the corner of Market and Albany Road.
Norma Ryan reported that the basement level of the Taylor Building is currently available for rent, as is the former coffee shop in the basement of the Flatiron Building. The coffee shop is currently available for rent for small parties, Ryan said, though a permanent tenant is also being sought.
McConnell said some nonprofit organizations support themselves by having for-profit affiliates that run restaurants and similar businesses.
McConnell reported that BARC has received a $500 donation from a man in the state of California for the Plaza organ restoration project. McConnell said the money from Robert Simpson will be enough to complete the remaining work on the organ, which could be ready for performances by the National Pike Festival in May. McConnell said Simpson wrote the initial letter to local historian and Herald-Standard columnist Glenn Tunney asking what had happened to the Plaza organ, leading to it being donated to BARC by Jay Smith of Pittsburgh, whose father had purchased the organ when the theater closed.