The city of Oxford awarded five local businesses with small grants to make their businesses more attractive and energy efficient. Winners of the first round of the grant are Moon Co-op, Shademakers Garden Center, SDS Pizza and Subs, Paesano’s Pasta House and the Oxford Community Arts Center.
Seth Cropenbaker, the city’s economic development specialist, said the grant is intended to provide support in ways that makes businesses’ lives a bit easier while leaning into one of the city’s core values – sustainability.
The grants cover up to 50% of project costs with a cap at $2,500. According to Cropenbaker, this fiscal years’ budget allocated for the grant.
“We’re reducing barriers for folks to do business and attract customers,” Cropenbaker said over the phone.
The winning businesses’ projects include facade updates and sustainability efforts.
Moon Co-op, at 512 S Locust St., bought new, energy-efficient LED placement tubes for the lighting in part of the store. Bernadette Unger, a member of the Moon Co-op board of directors, said they are looking forward to reducing solid waste and having light bulbs that last longer.
“We really appreciate this opportunity that the city has given us,” Unger said.
Unger said Moon Co-op had already begun a “relamping” project, but ran out of funds before completion. The store is able to restart their lighting project with these funds.
Shademakers, located at 304 W. Collins St., is adding a public sitting space off of the entrance facing the intersection of Spring and Collins streets. Co-owner Doug Drake said the project will be the “world’s smallest dog park,” although there is no fence and dogs must remain leashed.
Drake said that when completed, it will feature a sitting area, artificial turf, an antique fire hydrant and a treat station.
“This all used to be an empty lot that looked like an industrial wasteland, but we’ve done a lot,” Drake said. “When we saw the grant we thought it’d be a good fit for us and for the city.”
The other three businesses were contacted but unreachable for comment.
SDS Pizza, at 7 E. Chestnut St., replaced its wall mounted sign on the front of the building, according to Cropenbaker, along with upgrading indoor lighting to LEDs.
Paesano’s Pasta House, located at 308 S. Campus Ave., replaced the sign that sits near the road. Cropenbaker said they upgraded from wood to a more robust material that would be more damage-resistant from pedestrian traffic.
The Oxford Community Arts Center did exterior facade improvements including repairing decking, handrails, concrete steps and brick work, according to Cropenbaker.
