GREENWICH - In this quaint village with a small-town character, the future is scrawled on dozens of sticky notes that cling to the high school cafeteria walls.

"What is it that we want to leave for our children?" said Mayor David Doonan, whose village began hosting a series of community workshops in September to develop a "vision plan" for Greenwich.

"The goal is to come up with a narrative of what we would like our community to look like in 20 or 30 years," Doonan said. "This is the first step toward a new comprehensive plan. The one we have is from 1971, so to say that it is out of date is an understatement."

The most recent workshop was held in the high school cafeteria and attended by about 30 area residents, who evaluated design sketches and survey results, and responded with suggestions of their own that were etched onto sticky notes and fixed to preliminary designs posted at the gathering.

More than a dozen areas in the village are being addressed as part of the plan.

The Main Street downtown district, Mowry Park and Washington Square were identified as "sacred places," or locations to be preserved and passed on for future generations to use.

The Battenkill River, which runs adjacent to the village, was recognized as an area with which to re-connect.

Local business owners expressed concerns about empty storefronts on lower Main Street and a desire to improve the "pedestrian environment" to re-energize the commercial district.

"To survive as a village, we need to bring in more jobs and recruit those businesses such as light manufacturers or software-related companies," Doonan said.

Currently, the village is examining possibilities of what to do with the former IGA supermarket property on lower Main Street, which it purchased in 2002.

An architect was hired to determine the exact footprint of a new potential Fire House on the site with the idea to sell, lease or use the excess property at the site as commercial space. The architectural results are expected in December or January, Doonan said.

The group also identified under-utilized resources in the village and sought ways to transform them.

The Batten Kill Railroad site, which currently is used to transports goods such as grain, fertilizer and logs along a 34 mile route that serves Washington and Rensselaer counties, was one such area that was mentioned.

The vacant former Dunbarton Mills site was another.

The mills were established in 1880 and were used to manufacture linen thread during an era of unpaved roads that were lighted by kerosene lamps. The Dunbarton continued operations until the early 1950s, before undergoing a series of changes and has remained vacant for the past several years.

The vision group suggested the area could be cleaned up, developed and transformed into an open green space and identified opportunities for increased recreation and the arts - such as the possibility of hosting an annual village film festival.

"That's one idea that specifically came out of the workshops. And not just a generic film festival, but something where we can get about a half-dozen young adults to step forward and help to organize," Doonan said.

"This is something that could be a major attraction for our village and an important way of getting the youth of our community involved," he said.

Doonan said he can envision an annual summer film festival over a two-weekend stretch with films shown at multiple village venues - from businesses and community rooms to outdoor screenings on summer evenings outside village hall.

"We've (initially) received very positive responses, and it's something we're hoping we can pull off. It will take a commitment, but it's the type of thing that can have a positive effect not just on the village, but on all of southern Washington County," he

said.

The vision plan was formulated after the receipt of a $20,000 grant from the Historic Saratoga-Washington on the Hudson Partnership. Helping craft the vision statement are students and faculty from Community Design Research, a component of the SUNY School of Environmental Science and Forestry in Syracuse.

The final public visioning workshop will be held at 6 p.m. on Dec. 9 at the Greenwich Central School High School Auditorium. The findings will be presented to the village board, which will discuss the results in early 2010 and decide whether to adopt the vision statement.

If the plan is accepted, it becomes a document that the village can use as the first step of crafting a new comprehensive plan, Doonan

said.