By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
The downtown Main Street Project does have a plan available for all interested to view.
Carmela and Dave Worwood, representing some of the downtown merchants located in the construction zone of the project, attended council meeting hoping to get some questions answered.
"In everything, there are rumors," said D. Worwood.
He wondered if there was a plan available that could be viewed by merchants who had questions.
"There was an agreed upon and a final plan," said Mark Jones, mayor.
UDOT had also agreed to the plan and the contract was bid out with the work to be done outlined.
One change which had taken place in that plan was the location of the planter boxes to be installed in the four-block historic Main Street area.
"The location of those planter boxes has been modified," said Jones. "We re-situated them, and late as this morning, they have been moved."
When the pink paint was placed on the sidewalk area, indicating the proposed location of those planters, it was noted that there were problems in that some of those boxes were right in front of business entrances. Those locations were changed.
"The white paint are the new proposed planter boxes," said Jones.
There was also a misunderstanding about the height of the boxes, he said. They would only be 12-inches or one-foot high.
Where the boxes had been proposed, D. Worwood said, they would have been in front of his business' door and in front of Kasey Wright's door. They would have created a impediment leading into their businesses on Main.
The planter boxes should no longer be a problem, as far as entrances were concerned, said Jones because they were now relocated.
D. Worwood said that the planter boxes still created a problem and would do so even if they were only six-inches high. Snow removal had been made a problem by the addition of the boxes.
The sidewalks in front of businesses could no longer be cleaned using a backhoe because the planter boxes would be in the way.
"I can't do the snow removal anymore," he said.
"Is the city going to remove the snow?" asked C. Worwood.
The city would do that, said Jones.
Jones said that the plants in the planter boxes would also not be watered by hose but by an underground watering system so that they could be cared for without having to have a city worker or a merchant do the job.
The bump outs at corners of the streets were also a problem, said D. Worwood.
"Horse trailers and trucks can't make the corner," he said.
Tractor-trailer units would end up running over the corners because there was not enough space for them to maneuver the vehicles from the west or east into a turn taking the trucks north or south.
"Delivery trucks can't make those turns," he said.
The merchants had attended the public meetings held to take comment on the project back when it was in the formation stage, he said. They had asked for three things and none of those had been addressed.
The streets are wide, said D. Worwood. They are too wide for pedestrians, hence the bumpouts, but UDOT considered them too narrow to allow diagonal parking in front of businesses along the historic Main Street area.
"We supported you and because of your request we tried to get the kind of parking you wanted," he said.
Jones said that the council had worked with UDOT trying to get diagonal parking on Main Street. Clear up until the end of the planning phase they had tried to get the merchant requested parking approved.
"Main Street is a state road," said Jones. "UDOT would not allow diagonal parking."
UDOT had the final say and they thought that diagonal parking was not safe on a state highway, he said.
D. Worwood said he also wondered why the wall to the side of the city building and in front of the county building was removed and not replaced. He thought that was a change in the plan.
"The wall is not part of the UDOT project," said Jones.
The wall was crumbling and was falling apart. The trees on top of the retaining wall were also dying and would be even further compromised when the wall was removed so they were taken out.
"That project is a combined effort by the city and the county," said Jones.
The only deviation from the pre-approved design plan, agreed upon by UDOT and the city, was the relocation of the planter boxes, Jones said.
D. Worwood said he was not at council meeting to complain but did want to know what was happening. He had heard rumors and wanted to know the truth.
