By Jane Bellmyer of the Cecil Whig

Perryville Town Commissioner Alan Fox is worried about the town in which he grew up.

"When I was a kid, Perryville had two hardware stores, an ice cream store, a photography studio, a town newspaper and a bank. It was a vital downtown," Fox said during the work session last week.

Fox wants to assemble a downtown revitalization committee comprised primarily of residents, but also including the business community and others who want to help.
The town is growing with the arrival of the casino and other major development along Routes 40 and 222.

"But the town’s growing away from town hall," Fox said. "We’re reaching some sort of critical mass. If we don’t stop the decay we may never get it back."

Fox has already enlisted the help of the Maryland Department of Housing and Community Development. He said the state is eager to help after seeing the condition of some of the buildings, many of which are nearly a century old.

Matt Roath, president of the Greater Perryville Chamber of Commerce, said the solution is simple — let people know what the town has to offer a business owner.

"We have plenty of people that come into town but they don’t stay," Roath said.

Mary Ann Skilling, town planner, agreed that people come to Perryville en route to Perry Point, or to catch the commuter train. However, she said the downtown has little to offer them.

"There’s no place to get a cup of coffee or a quick sandwich," she said.

Skilling said work has started to compile an inventory of all properties in need of attention, with a focus on commercial units along Broad Street and Aiken Avenue and surrounding streets in the area now known as Old Town Perryville.

"We’re looking at doing all this to recapture what Broad Street used to be from Aiken on down," she said Monday.

Roath said there also needs to be a targeted campaign to introduce the real Perryville to potential visitors.

"A lot of people have this misguided perception of downtown Perryville, that it’s this poverty-stricken, crime-ridden area," he said. "I’ve never seen that before in my life."

He agreed the town needs its image to be polished and promoted.

"There is a tremendous need to promote growth downtown. We don’t want (all the development) to go out of town," he said. "If we don’t do something we’re not utilizing a very important tool."

Anyone interested in being part of the revitalization committee should call Perryville Town Hall at 410-642-6066.