What do I call the BP? A scumhole, owned and operated by people from WAY out of town. Dirty, expensive, catering to the best things in life; liquor, papers, choreboys, glass tubes, blunts, all the necessities for the projects next door.
Sharon used to have two REAL service stations. Both owned by locals, and actually IN the town.
Did you know that Sharon once had a REAL downtown grocery store? By a strange coincidence. After the BP opened, another person from WAY out of town bought the grocery store, and amazingly enough, it burned to the ground shortly after.
Come to think of it, he was from the same "out of town" as the people who own the BP. Odd.
But I digress. Why would I object to grants, loans, ANY seat at the public trough that would make the village more attractive? Simple. It's TAX MONEY. Let's do some Your Country 101. ANY money spent by the regime comes out of your pocket. They tax us, and they use the money as they see fit. Send it to Israel, send it to Botswanaland, send it to Sharon, wherever, it's still OUR money being used.
That's a start.
Now, how about the fact that most of the rundown properties in Sharon are rentals, owned by people who don't live in town, and who haven't touched them in years. Some of them are rented to good people, and some of them are rented to whoever rolls into town, good or bad. Why would I want to subsidize a slumlord's profits?
Last but not least, our tax dollars keep getting thrown at a downtown district that will never come back. Ever. I don't know if you are at all familiar with Sharon, but there are fewer than ten actual, real-live fulltime business' open there. The rest of the buildings are either off the tax rolls, abandoned, or falling down. The usual spiral is; real business, hobby business, trash-n-treasures, then empty and abandoned.

Let's see...we had a laundromat, but the utility company that owned the building that housed it decided to forego the repairs needed to keep it in business and use the building for storage. Off the tax rolls. We had an auto-body shop, but when the original owner died, the utility company that owned the building decided to use it for light repair and storage. Off the tax rolls. We had a lumberyard, but when they went bankrupt, the local utility company bought the building direct from the bank, and now it's used for storage. Off the tax rolls.
On and on, up and down the main drag.
Many people's idea of improving the downtown is to paint phony scenes of yesteryear on the blank windows, or installing plastic streetlights that are supposed to look like cast-iron lamps of yore. Guess what? It hasn't brought a single dime into the Village.
Bottom line. why would a Sharonite want to attract more people to rent refurbished houses? We don't need more people, we need some actual business. We need a Village Board that will try to bring something into the Village, something other than empty, unimproved land and trailer parks.

What do you call the BP Gas Station on School Street? It's in Sharon. Grants do not get repaid - Loans get repaid you need to learn the difference between the two -- I will admit I don't know where the grant money comes from that the Government gives to the villages and towns that get it - but what difference does that make? If you live in Sharon and I'm guess you do by your comments - why on earth would you not want to help fix up run down buildings to improve your village and attract more people? You so-called Logic (and I say so-called because it's NOT logic) is amusing. Have a great night

You could spruce up the whole town for less than a hundred dollars, but there isn't a gas station downtown anymore.

Democratic logic...the Federal Government is coughing up the money, and it is a grant, not repayable for however many years, therefore it is free!

Ya gotta love it.

Driven through Sharon lately? 400K is a drop in the bucket as to what would be needed to spruce up the village.

I suppose the government gets the money for the grant from the money fairy?

oh and by the way -- Grant means it's GIVEN to the Village by the Federal Government no less - doesn't get paid back by the Village or the residents in their taxes - nobody is taking your tax money to fix other people's houses - they are getting money from the Government to LOAN to people with loan interest in whatever form your Village ends up charging that comes back to your Village to help you as a resident.....By the by -- I don't live in Sharon I just live in Walworth County.

I don't know why people would be angry or make nasty comments about this. This program is similar to that offered by Walworth County thru Community Action. I myself benefitted from one of these homes in the township - was able to get a loan to remodel things in my home that were safety issues and I only pay it back if I sell my house, or change title. It doesn't accrue daily interest like a regular loan either; I only pay a $500 flat fee when paying it back. Wake up people - this is to help you not hurt you -- your Village seems like it cares for its residents and how it looks; don't you??? It only improves your property if others improve theirs! You should say thank you to your Village management for working hard to get this Federal money -- I'm told it's not easy to get! -- especially with a Governor in charge who's returning all kinds of money to the Federal Government - we're lucky they're giving Wisconsin towns/villages/counties ANYTHiNG!

Oh good. The government gives my taxes to other people to fix up their houses, which leaves me with less money to fix up mine.
I'm just steamin'...

Congratulations to the village of Sharon. You've now become poor enough to collect welfare. Who says the american dream is dead!

And Gov. Walker won't sent the money back to Washington? I thought our state didn't want to get its hands dirty with money confiscated from the job creators.

At least some of the houses that should have been condemned and razed years ago will be nice and pretty by the time the Village goes bankrupt. When does that first loan installment come due?!

This is another wonderful boondoggle. Those that struggle to pay their taxes, while incidentally maintaining their homes, will now be forced to subsidize those who don't maintain their homes. Many of whom are driving new cars, watching big-screen televisions, and so on.

One thing to ponder, how many of the homes that are rehabbed using this money will be owned by the occupants, and how many by absentee landlords? Anyone who lives in Sharon knows that the majority of the rundown houses in the Village are owned by landlords and rented continually with little or no effort to maintain them, let alone make them more attractive.

But then, when you have a downtown that is devoid of business, where almost all of the empty buildings are off the tax-rolls and off the market, and whose main claim to fame is fancy faux-antique streetlights, I guess every little bit helps. I can only hope that some of the hard-working, conscientious homeowners will benefit from this.

After all, not everyone can live in the Section 8 insta-ghettos, oops, I mean "Affordable Senior Housing" a previous Village Board graced our Village with.

So we should be happy our tax money is coming back to the area ?? Though it's a loan, I don't want to know what the overall cost is for this program.