SWANSEA, S.C. — People in the Town of Swansea wants to see downtown renovated to bring back life into the area.
The Mayor of the Town of Swansea, says they’re looking to renovate downtown.
“We’re partnering with School District 4 along with the West Metro Chamber of Commerce and they will be with us on Friday about 11:30 until about 1,” said the mayor.
The town says Swansea United Methodist Church will be hosting a meeting where people will talk about what changes they want to see in the downtown area.
“We’ll talk about renovations. We’ll talk about issues of the town and how our partners can help us to bring all of our ideas into fruition,” explained Sanders.
Mayor Sanders says it’s important to make some changes to downtown because of the condition of most of the buildings.
“Some of the buildings… have grown into decay. We want to renovate these areas. Swansea is a beautiful town,” said Sanders.
Sanders believes Swansea is a “diamond in the rough” that’s waiting to be found. Ultimately, he wants people who travel through the area to see what the town has to offer.
Right now there are some buildings that are vacant in the area and they hope revitalizing downtown will bring more businesses in.
The mayor says they’ve sent letters and invited business owners downtown to the meeting on Friday.
Dianne Crosby works at the A-Bargain Center off of S Monmouth Ave. She says life needs to come back to downtown.
“They need to upgrade a lot of the buildings. Roofs are falling down, leaking real bad. It looks kind of rough,” said Crosby.
Sidewalks are another area of interest Crosby wants to see redone in front of the stores. She says she’s all for renovating the whole area but wants some of the history to remain.
“By improving the area, more people will come in. It’s the area no one wants to come to right now with the way it looks,” explained Crosby.
To make this all happen, Sanders says they plan on using grant money and having help from partners like the Central Midlands Council of Government and the West Metro Chamber of Commerce to help pay for the projects they will eventually plan to work on.
“I would love to see the makeup of our town something like the Vista in Columbia. That’s my dream. We can make it possible by working together and coming up with these ideas, discussing and working going forward to make these things happen and trusting in our good Lord as well,” explained the mayor.
The community can give their input on what they want to see done in Swansea by going to the meeting on Friday at Swansea United Methodist Church. It starts at 11 am and ends at 1:30 pm.
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