CLEARFIELD – “We believe that form follows function,” said Bill Fontana, the speaker at the Clearfield Revitalization Corporation’s vision meeting, at the end of the presentation. “If your kid wants to be a baseball player, and you buy him a football uniform it just doesn’t work..”
The analogy was explained to represent the purpose of the meeting that gathered business owners and citizens of Clearfield had just sat through in the progress towards the Main Street Program. There were numerous things that could be done to the community. Without knowing what the community wants will allow for constructive measures to be taken.
Fontana explained at the beginning of the meeting that fixing up a community’s downtown was more than new streetlights or more parking. Knowing that parking had placed high on the previous meetings and this meetings beforehand community survey, Fontana used New Hope as an example of a community with poor parking conditions still getting people into town. It all came down to giving a people a reason to come downtown.
This meeting’s primary purpose was to reveal the draft for “The Downtown Clearfield Vision – 2019(2029)”. To that end Fontana explained what lead up to this draft and gave hints of what will be following next as the CRC makes progress in their plans.
In the draft three priorities were laid out for downtown Clearfield.
The first suggests a focus around making the downtown a “modern business center” that supports the role of Clearfield as the county’s seat and the emerging energy economy. This would be a focus on business and professional services with dining and retail stores supporting them.
For a second priority, a local and niche retail center was listed. This would work by focusing on downtown stores that fit what studies of the community preferred when shopping. During the presentation it was said that people shopping downtown Clearfield to five miles out tended to prefer collectibles, pottery and jewelry making, romance books and toys for their grandkids.
If enough retail stores appealing to the local interest gathered around downtown “critical mass” will be reached, and Clearfield would become known as a niche for these types of goods that those seeking such things would come to Clearfield as a destination. To support this priority would be a development of a variety of downtown living options.
The third statement and priority in the draft focuses on becoming a hospitality and retail gateway for the Pennsylvania Wilds. Downtown Clearfield could build upon existing recreational outdoor businesses, and attempt to build around itself a reputation for being the primary entrance to the wilds from those coming to them from US Route 219.
When asked why the emphasis on US Route 219 as opposed to Interstate 80, Fontana explained anyone coming towards the PA Wilds from I-80 would have to detour from a more direct path of staying on I-80 en route to visit the PA Wilds.
These priorities were based around input from the community, and facets of what Fontana described as a 20th century economy. That how people shop has been and will continue to change.
For those who physically go to stores the busiest shopping times are Sunday and Saturday afternoons, respectively, because of the rise of both husbands and wives working. For online retailers the busiest time is 9 to 5 during the work day as everyone sits at work themselves.
Fontana also explained how local economies are changing by the rise people who were once, either by income or reliability of transportation, bound by the town they lived in for their shopping can find it just as easy as it was once to head downtown to head to State College for shopping instead.
This was brought up again later in the meeting when Fontana said he was approached by people asking why it was hard to keep a restaurant operating in Clearfield. Looking at the demographics the explanation he gave was simple. Those who tended to stay in Clearfield for their dining tended to go towards fast food. Those who could afford better could, and probably did, could also afford to head to State College and DuBois for their dining experiences.
Another suggestion leans more into building around central Pennsylvania as the state’s energy capital with the Marsellis shale, biodiesel and wind power opportunities. Towards this end Fontana cautioned that building downtown Clearfield around the plant alone won’t do. It would have to be an effort to branch out into the supporting chains of businesses that the plant would need: places for the workers to eat, living arrangements, the materials the plant would require to function, etc.
With the draft now out there for public comment, it is now expected within a calendar year a Main Street Program manager can be brought on board. From there would the process would lead to the creation of several committee that would each oversee a different portion of the program.
As for the community perception survey, downtown Clearfield did very well in regards to accessibility. However, in regards to available activities Clearfield is perceived negatively.
