The city of Niles has been busy with economic development including two big projects apart of the Appalachian Community Grant program.

"It deals with Riverside Park in downtown Niles and Niles Public Square in downtown Niles. Both of those projects are underway, set for completion towards the end of 2025 and will officially open to the Niles community in spring of 2026," Steve Mientkiewicz, Niles mayor said.

Mientkiewicz adds, these will be places for hosting small community events or partaking in water recreation and the goal is to attract more people to the downtown area.

That's not all, the site for a new Hyundai dealership is also being prepared.

"Directly across the street from where we're at right here at the Funny Farm and construction will begin this fall and I believe it is set to open in the winter of 2026," Mientkiewicz said.

All this new development will bring jobs and income tax into the city of Niles, according to the mayor.

"Investing in public safety is a priority of ours, investing in public infrastructure is a priority of ours, investing in quality of life. Those are the big three pillars that come to my mind when I think of a strong community," Mientkiewicz said. "We continue to invest in our police and our fire, with personnel and equipment. Police and fire are fully staffed, that's a priority of ours. Having those special units in our schools with our school resource officer program, having that special units on our streets and in our neighborhoods with our street crimes unit, those are all, again, priorities for us. Fleet replacement in both the police and fire continuing to provide our officers with new and fully functioning vehicles is a plus," he said.

The mayor also said they're working on several other projects including water line and storm projects, a street resurfacing program and a sanitary sewer project which is mostly funded through grant dollars.