Oxford Borough Manager Betsy Brantner provided a brief progress report to borough council about the effort to update the revitalization plan at Monday night’s council meeting.

Brantner distributed a survey to the council members, seeking their input on the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) Analysis that is being used to compile information for the update.

The borough has invited residents to offer their input on the analysis as well. Forms are available and can be dropped off for the borough manager at Borough Hall, 401 Market Street, mailed to P.O. Box 380, Oxford, PA 19363, or emailed to [email protected].

Brantner said that it will be interesting to see what the survey results reveal about the residents’ thoughts on the strengths and weaknesses.

When it comes to revitalization of a downtown area, one goal is always to successfully redevelop buildings for new purposes. Brantner said that a good recent example of this in Oxford is when PC Scale moved their business to a new location in town.

“We already have one building that has a nice reuse of it,” Brantner said.

Council member Gary Tozzo asked his colleagues whether it would be a good idea to develop an ordinance requiring the second floor of buildings in the business district to be used exclusively for commercial uses.

Council member Ron Hershey said that an ordinance like that might be more appropriate once more of the buildings in the downtown have commercial uses taking place on the second floor.

Brantner said that the last full revitalization plan was completed in 2003. The revised planning document will be useful to borough officials in a variety of ways, including the effort to secure funding for projects.

“It’s important for us to have [an updated revitalization plan] so that we can continue to get grants,” Brantner said.