The Town of Essex has announced two new revitalization projects in partnership with the federal grant program My Main Street.
The initiative aims to revitalize the Essex Centre, Harrow and the main streets while also helping out local businesses.
Essex Deputy Mayor Richard Meloche says although the Harrow project is not finished yet things are off to a great start.
He says the cost of the project was around $4.5 million.
"If you take a look through downtown Harrow, its not even finished yet but it look beautiful. They've got the new sidewalks, new curbs, we also have street lights that are changing, which was one of the big hold ups, there was a lot of brick work done on the sidewalks, new benches, new shrubbery and new flower beds."
He says this will help local businesses in addition to new people coming into the area.
"I think people are looking at it and going well this is really something that needed to be done and you can see that it had a true face lift. We're hoping we can
increase the number of new businesses that want to come into town as well."
He says he's most excited about this being the first face-lift for either one of the centres in the last 30 to 35 years.
"I think by revitalizing these two downtown's we're giving both of those areas an opportunity to expand and bring back business in a big way once COVID is finished."
The Harrow project will be completed in spring of 2022 while the revitalization of Essex Centre will start in spring.