BATESBURG-LEESVILLE, S.C. — Local leaders are planning to spruce up Batesburg-Leesville and residents are happy about it.
This comes out of a need for upgrades, including cracked sidewalks and several abandoned buildings along North Oak Street.
Batesburg-Leesville residents and businesses tell me the town is in need of a facelift, including better lighting and more parking spaces.
"A lot of times, you're driving around, you're looking for a parking spot and if you can't find it, some people just leave, so having plenty of parking is a plus for any business," Rush Clothing owner Machelle Powell said.
The town's mayor, Lancer Shull, tells News 19 plans for improvements to sidewalks, landscaping and more are in the works, in the town's 2020 revitalization master plan, with additional goals of more art influence.
"We're currently re-engineering and doing revitalization for these, our historic downtown districts that you see out the window, so that's in engineering plans right now and we hope to really incorporate not only murals, visual arts, but also performing arts and all of that," Shull said.
Locals say there's a great community of people that live in this part of Lexington county. They just want to see that potential grow and be highlighted.
"Trying to piggy back and watch some of my mayor friends like mayor McDougal, what he's done with the amphitheater and mayor Partin in Cayce, what she's done with murals and mayor Osbon in Aiken, what they've done with the art community there and really watch what they've done and model as we regrown and rebirth our downtown districts in Batesburg-Leesville." Shull said.
Non-profits, like Twin City Artworks and Revitalization, which started up last year, also want to help.
"In the case that a business owner is in the process of selling their building or want a concept design, they could get in contact with us as well and we can provide them with those ideas," said Andrew Leaphart, Twin City Artworks and Revitalization founder.
This group is also looking for more committee members and community input. If you'd like to help them, visit their Facebook page here.
This is a town-wide effort to make BL more beautiful.
"Batesburg-Leesville is a wonderful community and it's full of a bunch of wonderful people. We just need to take pride in our community and work as a team to build it the way that we would like it," Leaphart said.