08/19/2026
❤️ We love the momentum happening in Downtown! Thank you for the shout out! We are so excited to be partnering with so many great leaders, organizations and with each one of you! Let’s show our community pride!❤️
Alliance is on the move.
During a recent address to fellow Rotarians, Mayor Andy Grove highlighted progress that the Carnation City has experienced over the last few years.
“There’s not a place, any corner of the city, where you can’t go and there’s not something happening,” said Grove.
The mayor highlighted Alliance’s continued economic growth, noting that the city has seen 63 new business developments and approximately 1,600 new jobs over the past three years, including expansions at Morgan Engineering, Robertson Heating Supply, Sun America, and Crucible.
The mayor placed considerable emphasis on the revitalization efforts of downtown Alliance, describing a growing sense of momentum and renewed interest in the district. He pointed to new businesses, restaurants and coffee shops, along with events such as Final Fridays and the farmers market, as signs that people are increasingly coming downtown.
The city recently undertook the Caboose Amphitheater project to help bolster downtown, which is also getting much support from Main Street Alliance and the Alliance Area Chamber of Commerce in efforts to grow interest in the area.
“We’ve focused a lot of attention on downtown, and it’s starting to pay off,” said Grove. “That activity is beginning to have a contagious effect, with developers and investors showing greater interest in downtown properties.”
In fact, he noted that there has been enough activity that parking can sometimes be difficult to find — a small but encouraging indication that people are increasingly visiting downtown to see what is happening.
Beyond economic development, the mayor highlighted a number of quality-of-life and infrastructure improvements taking place throughout Alliance. The city has returned to investing approximately $1.2 million annually in street repairs and resurfacing, after putting more than $5 million into resurfacing projects over the previous two years with the help of government funding. Recent improvements include the resurfacing of the roadways at Silver Park, which received positive feedback during the Carnation Festival, with plans to address cemetery roadways in the future. The city is also replacing aging sodium streetlights with brighter, more efficient LED lighting, a project expected to take about two years.
While Grove’s comments focused on the positive, the mayor spoke candidly about some of the more difficult challenges facing Alliance, particularly neighborhood blight, illegal dumping, public nuisances, affordable housing and homelessness.
One of the city’s goals is to address the large number of vacant properties and lots that can become liabilities for neighborhoods. The city owns more than 350 lots, and the mayor noted that the city is working to get those properties into the hands of developers who can put them back into productive use, including for affordable housing.
The city has demolished more than 600 properties over the past 25 years as part of its blight-reduction efforts.
Code enforcement was identified as another significant challenge. The mayor acknowledged that Alliance already has policies and ordinances in place, but putting those measures into effect can be a lengthy and difficult process. He described situations in which the city’s administrative process can take two or three months to address a problem, while the city health department may have the authority to act much more quickly under its own laws and procedures. As a result, the administration is looking at reorganizing code enforcement and potentially moving much of that responsibility from the city administration to the health commissioner. The goal is to create a more effective system for dealing with problem properties, public nuisances and other conditions that contribute to neighborhood deterioration.
Homelessness also presents a different and particularly complex challenge. The mayor emphasized that Alliance has developed a community guide to help people experiencing homelessness connect with the appropriate shelters and services, particularly during periods of extreme cold or heat. But he also acknowledged that simply identifying available resources does not always mean that someone will accept or use them, making the work of police, fire personnel and community organizations more complicated.
The city is relying heavily on cooperation among organizations including the Salvation Army, Rodman Public Library, the Alliance Food Pantry as well as other charitable and civic organizations and churches that provide free meals, clothing and other services.
“The community of Alliance is doing a great job,” said Grove. “We take care of people here. That’s what we do.”
Grove emphasized the importance of those partnerships in moving Alliance forward, including the relationship between the city and the University of Mount Union. The university is an important part of the local economy and community, and continued cooperation between Mount Union, the city and other local organizations can help create new opportunities for investment, development and growth, he said.
“Alliance is certainly a place where we have a promise of growth, resilience and certainly community spirit,” said Grove. “So we’re going to continue to keep that spirit going and community growth one day at a time.”
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The Alliance Rotary Club meets from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. each Wednesday at the Alliance Elks. Those interested in joining the Alliance Rotary Club should contact Mark Locke by email at [email protected]
