Letter to the Editor: Downtown upgrades

We need a better and bigger downtown.

I know that the buildings in downtown Fort Scott are the owner's obligation to fix and spruce up. The city needs to contact these building owners and let them know what resources are available to allow these actions to be performed. The city needs to work with the business owners to re-paint, repair, and clean the buildings. I agree that putting in a new sewer system is a must, but, what about the buildings themselves. The people of Fort Scott need to revitalize downtown by cleaning it up and painting the buildings and replacing the sun-bleached awnings. All of the buildings need to have fire sprinkler systems installed. They need cleaned and painted. The whole building needs fixed, not just the bottom floor. We need places that business want to locate to. We don't need a downtown that is dead to progression. Fort Scott downtown is historic and it needs preserved by painting and fixing the inside of the buildings. They are old buildings, but they need some t.l.c. If we do not care for them now, downtown will become nothing but a fire hazard. The putting in of more plants and benches is a waste of time and money. Fort Scott needs to fix the buildings first. The new sewers are a start but we need to work from the ground up and show the buildings as they once were when they were nice, clean, and prosperous.

Mark Hall