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Mayor details progress of city's Stellar Grant projects
With the facades of 14 downtown Greencastle buildings in some stage of restoration right now, a little frustration may occasionally creep in, but better days definitely lie ahead, Greencastle Mayor Sue Murray assured local residents this week.
An estimated 50 local residents took advantage of a public forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters and the Greater Greencastle Chamber of Commerce Wednesday night to hear the mayor and City Council President Adam Cohen detail progress on projects funded by the city's $19 million Stellar Grant package.
Mayor Murray eagerly noted she never gets tired of telling the story.
"Every time I go to a state meeting," she said, "people still ask, 'Do you know how lucky you are?'"
And others still ask about a supposed $19 million check or how they can tap into some of those funds.
"We've gotten all kinds of people asking how they might access that money," the mayor added.
The irony is, the city really hasn't seen that $19 million up close and personal. The money is in the reconstructed storefronts, the reconfigured Anderson Street entrance to the DePauw University campus and new roofs and windows and lead-paint remediation to several houses in the immediate vicinity of the downtown.
Meanwhile, the ongoing facade project, which literally has reconstruction efforts under way on every side of the courthouse square, is undoubtedly the most visible portion of the undertaking.
The 14 buildings in the first phase of the facade work were funded by $1.4 million in grant money, Mayor Murray reminded the group.
"All but the Senior Center are in various stages or yet to start," Murray said, refusing to show any public frustration with a project that has been fraught with weather issues (snow, wind, rain and cold) and numerous surprises (like the missing brick and steel beam under the Almost Home facade).
"We have one shot to do this right," the mayor stressed, assuring that city officials didn't want to make the facade work "just a painting project."
"We want this project to be something the community can be proud of and will last a lifetime," she added. "We think it's going to be a pretty impressive 14-building sweep when we're done."
How soon that occurs has been repeatedly bedeviled by the weather.
"We haven't had the best of weather, especially for masonry work," Mayor Murray pointed out, adding that a consistent temperature above 40 degrees is vital to most of the necessary exterior work.
"And if it's not raining, that's a plus," she smiled, flush with the knowledge that April alone has seen about 10 inches of rain locally.
While weather remains an issue, more manpower will be assembling to attack the remainder of the projects, the mayor told the public forum crowd at City Hall.
Advanced Restoration Contractors (ARC), she said, will be putting two additional crews on the facade effort in coming days.
Meanwhile, city officials are already into the red tape of the second phase of the facade project, which will receive considerably less grant funding ($500,000). The same 90-10 split (with property owners paying only 10 percent of project costs) remains in place.
"The goal is to do the Indiana Street facades first," the mayor said of Phase II, "because we know there will be other construction there (Indiana Street streetscape work) next year."
Speaking of streetscapes, the city is letting bids on the Washington Street streetscape project (from Vine Street east to the light at Bloomington Street).
The work will include sidewalk widening (with bump-outs at corners to allow better pedestrian access), new street lamps to match the existing downtown ornamental lighting, drainage work and more trees.
"It's a state highway (231), so we're not touching the street," Mayor Murray said, suggesting the project will "make the sidewalks more walkable."
In 2014, Indiana Street will be reconstructed from Washington to Seminary Street, removing a seven-inch pitch in the pavement that "sends storm water flying down that road," the mayor noted.
Also part of the streetscape work in 2014 will be the alley behind the south side of Washington Street (Indiana to Vine) to make it more walkable and better lighted and remove the ponding of water that causes a frozen obstacle in the winter (or this year, spring as well).
The streetscape work scheduled for 2015 will include Vine Street reconstruction from Washington to Seminary streets.
The mayor briefly touched on second-floor loft development downtown, the next round of owner-occupied housing rehabilitation and the parking garage structure (recently the subject of its own public hearing).
Once the free parking garage at Walnut and Jackson streets is finished, Mayor Murray noted, the City Council will be asked to pass a stricter ordinance dealing with parking violators in the two-hour-limit area downtown.
The ordinance will also make the lot north of the Banner Graphic a free lot to go along with Vine Street in encouraging downtown employees not to park on the square.
Council President Cohen stressed that despite all the hard work and extra effort required of city officials and the inconveniences construction might have caused along the way, "Stellar has not stopped Greencastle from being Greencastle.
"And I think that's cool."
The mayor agreed.
"Stellar's a wonderful thing," she assured, adding that it has been a lot more work than city officials ever imagined. "It's about all we've done for two and a half years."
She said city officials have also learned some vital lessons along the way.
"We've learned how easy it is for folks to change their minds," Murray said. "We've learned that construction always costs more than you think, that the weather's never quite cooperative enough, and even if you're spending a million dollars you can't always make people happy."