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The storefronts of downtown Brunswick are a little more colorful and presentable than they were three years ago, as a state program has doled out nearly $60,000 in grants to help business owners improve their façades.

But the program, which allows Brunswick Main Street to distribute monies provided by the state Department of Housing and Community Development's Neighborhood Business Works program, has not been as successful as Main Street Manager Patrick Kay says he would like it to be.

About three years ago $200,000 was made available for grants through the program, but for every dollar granted, the recipient must spend a dollar of his or her own. The money can be spent on practically any improvements that can be seen from the street, from window replacement to painting, siding removal to cement restoration.

No more than six of the grants have actually been distributed, Kay said, and the remaining $140,000 must be granted by June 12, 2012, or the city will have to return it to the state. Kay hopes that local proprietors will take an interest in the program for any such projects they undertake, be they $1,000 or $100,000.

"Not a lot has been done with it. It's kind of sad," Kay, who previously worked as a developer in Anderson, S.C., said Friday while walking through town pointing out the few upgraded facades through the afternoon drizzle. "As a developer back in South Carolina, I would have been all over this."

Originally, the grants were limited to only $5,000 each, but the limit was lifted when the interest level waned. Since the beginning of March, just one grant has been given out, an $8,500 disbursement to paint, uncover glass windows, and make other changes to an empty storefront on East Potomac Street.

E-mail Connor Adams Sheets at csheets@gazette.net