NORWICH — The City of Norwich has seen an exciting year, with developments to the city, the addition of new events, achievements for area residents, and continued support within the Norwich and Chenango County community.

Downtown development

Perhaps the largest development for the city this year was the completion of the water main replacement project and repaving of downtown roads.

After more than a year of discussions and planning, the project officially began in June of this year. The project replaced outdated piping along East Main and South Broad Streets, which was completed around the end of September. Following the project, the New York State Department of Transportation repaved the same roads; a much needed improvement of downtown city roads.

The project cost around $4 million to complete. In January, the city received a $2.85 million federal grant to help complete the project, and the rest was covered by $479,233 in a capital reserve fund and $670,767 in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

City of Norwich Common Council members also explored placemaking opportunities in the city. Dana Wall, a project director with international boutique consulting firm Street Plans, explained placemaking as"the process of creating quality places that people want to live, work, play, and learn in."

She said some examples of placemaking in the city could include wayfinding to help direct visitors through the city while also providing great opportunities for public art and seating, turning pieces of Broad Street into public spaces, and updating intersections with pedestrian safety measures. These smaller projects would also help to tie together the nine larger Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) projects.

In June, the council voted to approve the allocation of $30,000 in community development funds to be used toward the placemaking initiative. At that time, the Follett Foundation had also contributed $10,000 and the Greater Norwich Foundation contributed $30,000.

New additions

In another push toward modernization, the city also installed electric vehicle (EV) chargers in four locations: the Hayes Street parking lot, Red Roof Inn parking lot, East Main Street parking lot, and the City of Norwich Fire Department parking lot at 31 East Main Street. Each location has two "level two" chargers.

The chargers were acquired thanks to an agreement with Greenspot, a New Jersey-based company who provided and installed the chargers at no cost to the city, and will maintain the upkeep of the units. In return, Greenspot will get ten percent of the revenue earned from the chargers. The units were installed by local electrical construction company MCM Solutions.

"Right now I think it’s a nice thing and it’s maybe a touristy thing, because I don’t foresee local people using it perhaps, but I foresee people that are coming through maybe, traveling, if they're stopping, plugging in. While they’re waiting they’ll do some shopping, maybe go out to eat," said City of Norwich Mayor Brian Doliver. "Those people that are perhaps near a place of work, they could plug in during the day. So that is an option as well."

The winter season also brought in a new addition to downtown Norwich: the City of Norwich Youth Bureau purchased an ice rink that was placed in East Park.

“The reason we’re trying this out is because last winter we didn’t open up Weiler Park at all because of the warmer weather and the asphalt retained the heat,” explained Youth Bureau Director Anthony Testani. “I think we’re going to run into the same problem again with being unable to make ice there.”

“So the alternative, I looked into this idea,” he continued. “I spoke to some folks that have used these types of ice rinks in the past and they all said they’ve had great success. Downtown Sherburne put one up basically for most of the winter last year.”

The rink is approximately 30 by 60 feet, and the $4,500 cost was covered by past donations to the Youth Bureau. The rink was approved by the county and placed in East Park in late December.

City officials weren't the only ones who spurred change in the City of Norwich. A group of area residents came together from winter of 2022 until early summer to finalize and implement the Hometown Heroes banner program, a nationwide organization that aims to honor past and present members of the Armed Forces, first responders, and their family members.

In June, the Department of Public Works (DPW) began hanging the approximately 70 banners on downtown Norwich light poles. The banners feature veterans dating back to the Civil War, from all branches of service, men and women, and from several families in the Norwich area. Included on the banners is a photo of the service member, their name, branch of service, and the years they served.

"Since the winter, our committee has met to initiate this project. It was not an easy task, with nearly double the requests of what we could produce," said Chenango County Deputy Historian and Hometown Heroes Committee Member John Antonowicz. "This project not only is important for the city, but is allowing us to document veteran history of Norwich and Chenango County. This information will be preserved at the Chenango County Historian’s Office and will serve as an archive for future researchers."

Each year, the banners will be taken down for the winter Veterans Day, with the next round of banners hung on Flag Day.

More information on the Hometown Heroes banner program can be found at HometownHeroesBanners.com.

New events

The area also saw the addition of new events in 2023. In late July, Commerce Chenango introduced the first ever Taste of Chenango event at the Chenango County Fairgrounds, featuring more than 50 local food, produce, and beverage vendors.

The event was organized by Commerce Chenango and sponsored by Chobani and NBT Bank, and served as a celebration of all food and beverages grown, produced, and sold in Chenango County.

"Part of the responsibilities that Commerce Chenango has is to generate and create opportunities for tourism here in the county, not only to highlight some of the things that we already do with Gus Macker and Colorscape and the Bluesfest," explained Commerce Chenango President and CEO Sal Testani. "We also wanted to try to have a celebration for the entire county that was more general celebration of all things local."

"We started out with the idea to somewhat mirror the Taste of New York, and that's a celebration of all things that are made and produced in New York State," he continued. "So this celebration will be anybody that makes, sells, grows any type of food, produce, and/or sells any type of drink, they will be able to set up."

Not long after the success of Taste of Chenango, the first annual Upstate Renaissance Faire brought 1300 to 1600 A.D. England to life at the Chenango County Fairgrounds over Labor Day weekend.

The event was organized by Norwich native Heather Baker, featured more than 45 vendors, and saw just shy of 4,000 visitors. Attendees had the opportunity to enjoy live combat shows, blacksmith demonstrations by Brandr Forge, photo ops in renaissance-era garb, psychic readings, ax throwing, and interactions from visitors in costume, known as “playtrons.”

Baker said she plans to bring the faire back even bigger and better next year.

“We have plans to expand our vendor and performer counts as well as add a few surprises. The plan is to expand and improve each year until the faire has its own grounds and we can continue to build and expand, hosting special events throughout the year,” she said. “We want to create a family- and budget-friendly experience that people will enjoy coming back to.”

During the holiday season, the Norwich Business Improvement District (BID) added to their litany of events with "Santa's Elf's Workshop" and "Procrastinator's Weekend," two local vendor events held on December 9 and 23.

The vendor fairs showcased more than 20 local shops and creators. BID Board Member Mindy Chawgo said the event was meant not only to encourage local shopping, but also provide exposure for vendors who don't have a storefront or other physical location.

“I think it’s important to have these small shops downtown during the holidays to showcase that there’s more out there. So I thought it would be really fun to add to the community,” said Chawgo. “I thought it would bring a draw downtown to have them here, and also highlight their businesses that don’t have those little pop up shops at their houses.”

On December 22, the BID also brought holiday cheer to the downtown area through caroling, a chili crawl, Santa visits, sleigh rides, and late store hours.

Chawgo said the vendor events will be returning next year as a permanent addition to the wide range of fall and winter events put on by the BID, including Saturdays in the Park with Chobani, the Norwitch Fall Festival, the annual Parade of Lights, and Santa pictures with pets.

2023 has been a busy year for the City of Norwich, packed with infrastructure upgrades, community enhancements, planning and preparation for the future, reverence for the past, and of course, the continuation and expansion of fun community events.

The constant evolution and improvement of the area is due to the many community members who want to see the area grow and thrive, from local officials to leaders of area organizations to city residents. The passion and drive of the community is sure to continue to benefit the city and propel it into another exciting and prosperous year.