http://www.wcax.com/story/16395748/revitalizing-downtown-springfield
Revitalizing downtown Springfield
By Gina Bullard WCAX
Springfield, Vermont - December 26, 2011
Chicken salad is the best seller at Jenevieve Johnson's restaurant -- Apron Strings café in downtown Springfield.
"For lunch we do soup and sandwiches," said Jenevieve Johnson of Apron Strings café.
But she's not selling as much as she would like.
"Downtown we don't have a lot of walking traffic so it doesn't feel very busy during the day," Johnson said.
And one look at downtown Springfield and it's easy to tell why. Main Street is filled with offices from accountants to lawyers. There are very few retail shops.
"A very visible symbol of what the town was and what the town has become," said Bob Flint of the Springfield Regional Development Corp.
Once a bustling factory town in the 1800's, Springfield had three vibrant factories. When they started to slide so did the downtown. All three are now being brought back to life including the Fellows Gear Shaper Company.
"The largest tenant will be the Springfield Community Health Center, there will be retail restaurants and hopefully assisted living as well," Flint said.
A 13-million dollar project that will create over 100 jobs it plans to open its new doors next year. One place that residents hope would restore life to this town was the cinema which was restored just this past summer.
"In terms of being the vibrancy of what the town use to have, we may never get there, but we're going to continue to be better than we were," Flint said.
To get those extra customers at Apron Strings café officials say it's all a matter of time.
"Things like a movie theater, things like that to attract the population that you need to be those people to fill the jobs that fill the empty buildings, it all goes together," Flint said.
A once vibrant town coming back to life one sandwich at a time.
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