Downtown Fox Lake facelift scrapped

Fox Lake's downtown business facade improvement program has been scrapped, village officials say.

Money needed to continue the program is unavailable, Mayor Cindy Irwin said, and after meeting with trustees, she decided not to include it in the 2008-09 fiscal budget proposal.

"We just can't find money in the budget for it," Irwin said. "The economy is just bad right now and it's hurting us."

Fox Lake has struggled financially for the past year. While the board approved a deficit budget in the 2007-08 fiscal year, it has managed to save enough to end the year even. However, Irwin said sales tax revenue is down 6 percent in the last two months, while daily expenditures -- such as gas -- continue to rise.

The facade program was created in 2002 to help change the appearance of the downtown business district.

The village would pay business owners up to $5,000 to offset the cost of construction for work done to the exterior of their buildings. The village set aside $50,000 annually for the program.

More than 30 businesses took advantage of the money and cleaned up their storefronts in the five years the program was in place.

Village and business officials said they were disappointed by the decision.

Trustee Ed Bender, who will run against Irwin for mayor in 2009, said it was a shame to end the program he helped start.

While the program cost the village some money, Bender said the good it does to attract business and sales tax far outweighs the cost.

"The dollars needed to run it might be small, but this is a great way to show the business community we can partner with them," he said.

Linnea Pioro, spokeswoman for the Fox Lake Chamber of Commerce, said the chamber is looking into ways to continue with the spirit of the program without spending money.

"One thing we want to do is get the downtown area cleaned up," she said. "We are going to hopefully work with the village to get the businesses to look more improved."

Officially, the village stopped accepting applications to enroll in the program in 2007. Irwin said the village has been paying off those outstanding facade applications for the past year.

The last application has been paid, Irwin said, and the village needs to cancel the program.

"It's a wonderful program that is designed to give back to the community," she said. "We didn't want to see it go. But, we just don't have the money for it."

Should the economy improve or if additional money is found to fund the program, Irwin said, the village board could consider reinstating it.

"This isn't something we wanted to do. It's something we had to do," she said. "The cost of everything is going up while sales tax revenue is going down. We need to tighten our belts."