Grant app could complete Central Park

Sundance’s efforts to revitalize the downtown area are continuing this year with an action plan for the recent transformation strategy and a second grant application that could see the new Central Park green space completed in 2020.

Kathy Lenz said last week that the Main Street Committee has been working on creating an action plan.

“We don’t focus a lot on bringing in new businesses but on trying to help the businesses we do have stand up,” she said.

“Our focal point is that, since we have so many business people on our main street, large professional organizations, how do we get those folks out of their office space and into the businesses?”

An additional focal point, she continued, is, “How do we capitalize on our trails and our natural beauty to bring folks in?”

The committee would also like to capitalize on the internet, Lenz said, and create a situation where Sundance’s businesses do ten percent of their business from their location and 90 percent online, which the committee believes could help them stabilize.

Meanwhile, a public hearing took place for a WBC Community Enhancement grant application. Lenz explained that the grant request is for $485,000 and requires a 20 percent match, half of which can be in-kind work.

Combined with the grant applied for at the beginning of the year, said Lenz, this could finish the project to turn the land on which the school administration building once sat into a public park.

The grant would specifically fund improvements such as restrooms, irrigation, trees and sidewalks.

Lenz explained that places for families to hang out and relax are an economic driver for the downtown area. The new park in Casper, for instance, already has nine new businesses around it.