ZELIENOPLE — During his visit to the borough Thursday, Alan Walker said he was reminded of his hometown of Clearfield, a borough in Clearfield County.

Walker, the secretary of the state Department of Community and Economic Development, spent about an hour Thursday touring Zelienople and talking to business owners and officials about the Main Street revitalization project.

The borough is seeking several state grants toward the $9.8 million first phase of the project which would include building a new parking lot, infrastructure improvements and the restoration of the Kaufman House.

Several years ago in Clearfield, volunteers organized a committee to try and revitalize the community and preserve the character and historic architecture of its downtown.

After seeing hundreds of factory jobs leave the area, the borough turned instead to shopping and tourism as drivers of its economy.

“We basically had to reinvent ourselves, but we made our number one priority saving our downtown,” Walker said.

The process is a similar one to what Zelienople has been undertaking with its Main Street effort, he said.

“I have been where you’re trying to go, and it’s one reason why I love this job so much because I have a passion for saving downtowns in Western Pennsylvania,” he told the group.

At the request of Gov. Tom Corbett, officials from the Department of Labor and Industry and the DCED are visiting communities to hear about projects that will create jobs, borough council member Mary Hess said.

Though the final decision comes from the governor’s office, borough officials hope that Walker can help influence the decision on a Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant the borough has applied for. The borough has requested $3.1 million for both the Kaufman House and infrastructure projects.

Walker said Zelienople was one stop of about 100 he had planned for the week as he tours Western Pennsylvania to visit communities and industries, many of which are vying for state grants.

After the walking tour, Walker praised the hard work of the officials and volunteers.

“It’s a pretty little downtown, certainly worth saving, a lot of character. There’s a lot of enthusiasm from the local citizens to really make a statement with their downtown and that’s what you need. They’re doing everything right,” he said.

In addition to borough officials, members of the revitalization corporation and business owners, Walker was greeted by state and county officials. These included Butler County Commissioner Dale Pinkerton, county Tourism and Convention Bureau President Jack Cohen, state Sen. Elder Vogel, state Rep. Jim Marshall and state Rep. Dick Stevenson.

State Sen. Randy Vulakovich could not attend, but has also been a big supporter of the project, Hess said.

The turnout of people to show support for the visit was encouraging, she said.

The tour included the historic Kaufman House, which has been closed since 2011 when it had a fire.

The borough hopes to restore and open the hotel and restaurant in partnership with the county tourism bureau and use it as a training facility for culinary arts and hospitality students from Butler County Community College.

Vogel said the Kaufman House put Zelienople on the map and re-opening it would help bring more people to the borough.

He said, “Everybody throughout the tri-state area knew where the Kaufman House was in Zelienople. People come here for Sunday lunch after church and some people come here for dinner. If they’re opening the Kaufman House back up, it’s a name that people in this area know and have known for many, many years.”

Marhsall said a new parking lot and Kaufman House would be big first steps toward more development in the community.

“To revitalize this hotel as an anchor tenant would certainly bring in more business to the community,” he said.

The first phase of the project would cost an estimated $9.8 million and focus on Main Street between Spring and New Castle streets. Projects would include re-doing sidewalks and streetlights, moving power lines underground and building a new municipal parking lot on West New Castle Street behind Main Street businesses.

Since much of the planning has been done, the borough hopes to actually begin some of the work next year, Hess said.

How much it can do depends on how much grant money it is awarded.

The project has already been granted $500,000 from the Keystone Communities program, $100,000 from the Appalachian Regional Commission and $480,000 from PennDOT.

It is still waiting to hear back on applications for the redevelopment assistance grant, the Anchor Building Grant, the Grow Greener Grant and others.

The borough has allocated $1.8 million for the Main Street revitalization project, some of which has already been used to hire the engineering firm EG&G. Remaining money is available to use as matching funds required with many of the grant programs.

Many of the grants will be announced during a 45-day period starting in late September, said Ben Levinger of EG&G.

With elections in November, state officials may be eager to spread the good news sooner.

“We might see a lot of them come out sooner, because it’s an election year,” he said.