The town’s parks and recreation department will be stepping along briskly to design, contract and build a new Holding Park Pool by the end of May, but Lisa Hayes, who heads the downtown development department, is going to be racing to spend $144,000 by the end of March next year.
The money was authorized by the N.C. General Assembly earlier this year, $5,725,020 for downtown revitalization through the Rural Economic Development Division of the state Commerce Department with a very constricted timetable. To meet the Sept. 1 deadline for a proposal about the planned project(s), Hayes submitted the list of top 10 projects that can be done in five years that is part of the Renaissance Plan update draft.
“I need direction on how to get this done,” Hayes told the town board Tuesday night.
Commissioner Anne Reeve suggested the plan to make the Front Street intersection at the Underpass more pedestrian friendly.
“I want the festival street to be done,” Mayor Vivian Jones said, referring to the plan to adapt the one block of Owen Avenue between South White and Brooks Street for small festivals. But, she said, “I think DOT is going to repave that street (Front Street) in one or two years. We can work with them and do the [brick] pavers in there at that time. She suggested using the money or part of it to landscape the steep banks at the Underpass.
Commissioner Greg Harrington asked if the CSX rail line still has a no-trespassing policy on its tracks and right of way. If the town improves the Underpass area – and one suggestion in the plan is a walkway between the concrete steps leading up from Front Street and the concrete steps leading down the embankment next to the rail line – Harrington said the effort would “encourage people to break the law if we clean it up. He later said he would like to use the money to light the Underpass bridge with LED lights. “We can’t paint it but we can light it up.”
“People use them all the time,” Commissioner Margaret Stinnett said about the stairs. “I used them when I came to Friday Night on WhIte.”
Speaking of the suggestions about Owen Avenue and Front Street, Planning Director Chip Russell said the $144,000 is not enough to complete either project. “There’s probably something you can do on both.
Commissioner Brian Pate suggested just painting in pedestrian crosswalks on Front and Roosevelt until permanent brick pavers could be installed.
“Our people can do that, clean up the bank and paint the crosswalks,” Russell said.
Hayes will get pricing estimates for the two projects, maybe three, and will have them for the commissioners to choose at their Sept. 20 meeting.
