Middletown’s Gateway project is starting to take shape, at least in the sense that businesses are moving to other parts of town, some are leaving locations they have called home for more than 20 years.

The Gateway Project is Middletown’s attempt at having a scheduled stop for the upcoming train that is set to travel between Columbus and Cincinnati, with a stop in Dayton. The city has made a land swap with Duncan Oil, the owners of the now closed Shamrock gas station. Middletown has traded the land between Central and First Avenue, where these businesses are located, to Duncan Oil for the building of new Shamrock station, and in return the city gets the land that Shamrock once set on in the hopes of building a new and improved train depot.

Billie’s Salon located on Central Avenue at the end of Charles Street, in the plaza that once held Jacks Pool Hall, will be moving across from the Middletown Post Office. Billie’s has been in the same location for 21 years but now must be relocated by April 6, 2010.