(KAIR)--Nine grants, totaling more than $22,000, have been approved as part of the ongoing effort to revitalize downtown Atchison.

 According to a release from the City of Atchison, the grant monies will “go toward building facade improvements in the 500 through 600 blocks of Commercial Street.”  

The release notes that the nine grants, totaling $22,275, were recently approved by the City’s Economic Development Advisory Group. The grant awards, made through the City’s Facade Grant Program, “are expected to leverage just under $70,000 worth of facade improvements.”  

The Atchison City Commission, earlier this year, voted unanimously to create the Facade Grant Program as a way, according to the release, “to incentivize improvements to buildings that had been partially obscured by the concrete canopies in the 500 through 600 blocks of Commercial Street for nearly six decades.” Those concrete canopies have been removed in recent months as part of the renovation of the now demolished Commercial Street pedestrian mall, with the street to return to vehicle traffic once the project is completed.  

The release says that nearly $30,000 of Facade Grant Program funding remains in the program, and a second round of awards is expected to be announced in August.