VILLAGE OF HERKIMER, NY (WUTR-TV) — The Village of Herkimer Planning Board is moving forward with their 2020 Master Plan, efforts to make the village a more desirable place to live.

“With the pandemic, it kind of changes some of the demographics of what the Master Plan could be capable of doing. It’s got some really good vision in it and we’re going to move forward with that,” says Mayor Mark Netti, Village of Herkimer.

“We’ve spent nine months developing this master plan and it really touches on a variety of things. we have a college here. Do we care? Yes we do. How do we bring them in? We have families we call them a bedroom community. We look it at how can we have it so that they want to stay here in the evening instead of going to New Hartford, Utica or Little Falls so that they have a reason to be here and they can have a reason to raise a family,” says Brion Carroll, Chairman of the Planning Board. Residents want to see more retail store, parks and recreation along with residential living.

Officials want to make the village more lively, but to continue to maintain the historical buildings. “All these things become high tech in this rich cultural history and got to be able to find a way to blend the two…” says Carroll.

The mayor has an exciting announcement to make in August. A Herkimer native is stepping in to help create this vision for the village. When officially announced, he hopes it will attract many tourists off the NYS Thurway into Herkimer. Netti is hoping to see change start as soon as October.