Revitalization is underway for the heart of Kemper County. Officials marked the grand opening of a new senior citizens center Wednesday.

It's located in the old Sunflower store, just off Main Street. Economic development officials say the opening marks the start of better things for DeKalb.

"We've got a lot of plans for revitalizing downtown and we think this is a good, what we call, keystone project to start," said Brian Henson of the Kemper Economic Development Agency. "People can see the facility. See how nice it looks and we can start working on other pieces of the downtown."

The building was donated by Bill Brown. In all, renovations cost $250,000. Federal, state and private grants were used to fund the project.