TROTWOOD — Slowly, the Main Street section of Trotwood’s Olde Town section is getting a face lift.

Already approved is a water line project expected to cost $1.3 million with contracts to be assigned this week.

An old trailer park has been purchased and will be turned into a park that will connect an existing park on Broadway Street-Union Road and the new soccer fields on the north side of Main Street. A 1,200-square-foot equipment and concessions building at the fields is almost completed.

The vacant former Elder-Beerman building on the south side of Main Street will be torn down.

“We have been focused and been able to obtain Community Block Grant Development (CBGD) funds to address Old Main Street,” said City Manager Mike Lucking, who, along with Planning and Zoning Director Carl Daugherty, obtained funding from the Neighborhood Stabilization Program, Water and Soil Conservation Program and Ohio Public Works Commission for the Main Street work.

“Main Street had become very tired,” Lucking said. “There hadn’t been resources put into it for many years. We’re trying to bring vitality back to the area. We want to make it a destination point.”

The city has installed more modern street lights and some landscaping in recent years.

As for the water line project, Lucking said, “We have three-inch lines and four-inch lines that must be 60 years old. We’re going to put in bigger lines, which will increase water pressure.”

The city has nearly finished removing about 25 trailers from the park and three other buildings in the area between Stuckhardt Road and Coffman Avenue.

“It’s a beautification project. It’s going to open up a very nice natural area next to a stream (the north branch of Wolf Creek),” Lucking said. “We’re using soil and water conservation fund dollars to ultimately protect the stream banks.”

The old Elder-Beerman building, vacant and molding for years, will be torn down by the city with the help of Neighborhood Stabilization Program money from Montgomery County. The land under the building will be donated by owner Spigel Properties of Chicago, Lucking said. That is expected to happen by year’s end.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2157 or mkatz @DaytonDailyNews.com.