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On Sept. 29, the Blueprint Consortium met to discuss progress on the Blueprint. The consortium consists of several groups, organizations and individuals who are considered stakeholders in the community.

“The community leaders are pleased,” said Janine Saputo, coordinator of the Romeo Downtown Development Authority. “We had quite a list of projects that we jumped forward with in the summer.”

The Blueprint contains a list of 60 different projects to be completed to revitalize the downtown area.

Saputo said the DDA left the meeting with five priorities to improve the downtown area.

Robert Lipka, chairman of the DDA, said he is excited about the progress being made toward making brick-and-mortar improvements in the downtown area.

One of the issues at which the DDA is looking is the improvement of the trash collection for commercial operations downtown.

Lipka said that issue has been around for several years, but until Saputo came on board last year they never had the person to bring all the involved parties together.

“Everything is a private Dumpster,” he said. “They are sitting out there and it can be ugly. At a lot of these businesses, the backdoor is used more than front, making people walk by grease traps before eating.”

Lipka said the goal is to create four centralized collection locations, one in each quadrant. He added that he would like to see about getting grease traps internalized, too.

“We need to clean it up and make things look better if we want the business climate to improve,” Lipka said.

Another priority Lipka discussed was the improvement of the four corners downtown. He cited several things being looked at to improvement the village, including creating angled parking, and reducing Main Street and St. Clair Street to three lanes.

Some of these changes, he said, would make the downtown more comfortable for pedestrians and businesses as there would be less lanes of traffic.

“We would really have a sharp downtown if we could get these improvements implemented,” Lipka said.

One of the priorities Saputo said she was excited about was working to attract the movie industry to the area.

“Romeo has been approached, not for a top-of-the-line blockbuster, but approached a couple of times informally to have the village and the surrounding area involved with a production,” she said.

Saputo said they will attempt to work with the surrounding community to make the area more attractive to production studios by adjusting zoning regulations.

Some of that work would involve making it easier for movie studios to work with the village, planning commission and law enforcement to get the proper set-up for the production, whether it be closing off a block in the village for a few days or blocking off a street for the night.

“Of course an area has to live with whatever problems are created,” she said. “We will see where this leads.”

The other priorities on the list included improving crosswalk markings, working with the planning commission to contribute to the update of ordinances, developing design guidelines for buildings and creating a facade improvement program.