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Dan Spaniola

I feel strong that they’re trying their hardest to try and get it back here. We’ve seen improvements; we’ve seen more stuff coming down town. I don’t think it will ever get back to what it used to be, but better than it was a few years ago. Actually more and more people and different people every month or so. They’re trying to make a college town out of it, which is good because we need people here. There’s a few things they may need to tweak a little bit like there’s lots of bars and restaurants, but like the college kids that come in here say, there’s no place to get clothes, shoes, medicines without having to get on a bus and leave downtown. Now that they have a community down here, they need to start focusing on the needs of that community to keep them down here. I think they’re doing a great job and they’re trying really hard, but I think we need to see that stuff come back to make it grow. Years ago this was the happiest place in the world, everything was down here. Your Sears, your Montgomery Wards, your Penny’s, everything was here downtown, when the malls opened up everything moved out there and the downtown started going downhill. They’re slowly bringing it back, we ve got lots of bars and restaurants, but we need the other end of the spectrum to help bring it all back.