SHELBY — Karl Milliron has always found it easy to support Shelby revitalization projects.
Growing up in Shelby and seeing it “thriving” in the 1970s and ’80s, Milliron said it’s been a while since he saw residents come together in a large group to support community growth.
Karl Milliron is the son of Grant Milliron, who founded Milliron Auto Parts. Throughout their nearly 70 years in business, Karl Milliron said the business has received community support from all three ballot initiatives it needed to expand.
“The community has always supported us in business, so it’s very easy for us to turn around and support the community,” he said. “It’s just something you feel like you have to do and need to do.”
Karl Milliron and other major donors helped break ground on the Black Fork Commons Plaza Sept. 8 with members of The Shelby Foundation and Community Improvement Corporation of Shelby.
“What it took was another younger generation to get excited about it and we’re blessed that we were in a position to be able to contribute to it,” Milliron said.
The plaza will require construction around East Main Street and in the Black Fork Commons park, with a ribbon cutting planned for June 2023.
Shelby mayor Steve Schag said he is grateful to private citizens like Milliron who provided most of the project’s financial support, in addition to funds from Richland County commissioners and government agencies.
“This celebration is a ceremony that highlights community collaboration in its highest form,” Schag said. “Generous contributions of time and money and the onset of a construction project will, in a wonderful way, change the landscape of the heart of the city of Shelby in a positive way for decades to come.”
State Rep. Marilyn John was Shelby’s mayor from 2009 to 2015 when the city was recovering from a 2007 flood that damaged about 11 houses and the municipal court building. John said city officials had discussed building a park before she became mayor but didn’t take action until her tenure.
“We were talking about what we wanted to name the park and talking about how we wanted to embrace the Black Fork [Mohican] River as a resource to our community because we had only seen it as a part of destruction,” she said. “We came up with Black Fork Commons, and to see that in writing and to see what’s happening now — it’s such a huge blessing to see all of these other people excited about it.”
Carrie Kemerer, executive director of The Shelby Foundation, said the foundation’s Board of Directors committed its largest gift ever of $250,000 to the plaza project.
“In the beginning, we were only raising private dollars,” Kemerer said. “But this project was too big, too important, that the city, county and state also contributed. Those added dollars allowed us to keep the integrity of the park design in the face of rising construction costs.”
Doug Boyer, landscape architect at The EDGE Group, Inc. drafted the plaza’s design that will include a splash fountain, patio seating, pavilion and community fireplace.
The EDGE Group proposed the Shelby Revitalization and Placemaking Plan in 2019, which includes downtown landscaping and improved walking paths.
Boyer said he likes to think of Black Fork Commons Plaza as “the living room of the city.”
“Every city needs a gathering place,” he said.
Jake Penwell, Community Improvement Corporation president, said this investment in Shelby’s downtown might encourage private business owners to invest in their own properties.
“Our goal with this — although it appears and is very much a beautification project — if you do things like this right, then those investments follow,” Penwell said. “We want these investments to encourage other people to make investment for themselves.”
