Contradicting opinions emerge over Streetscape

Milledgeville Main Street has a long list of plans for the rest of the year including the completion of the downtown sidewalk construction known as Streetscape. The Department of Transportation along with engineer Mark Patrick and Milledgeville Main Street are in their 6th week of construction on the project.

Belinda Washlesky, Executive Director of Milledgeville Main Street DDA, has high expectations for the project and expects its completion by the Deep Roots Festival October 23.

“We haven’t had any major ordeals,” Washlesky said. “We’ve been communicating so well with the property owners that we usually have met with them and have everything fixed within a few hours.”

In 2004, Phase One of the Streetscape project was completed on Hancock Street and the current construction on Wayne Street is Phase Two. There is also a Phase Three in the works that would include Greene Street and another block of Hancock Street.

“In the past, after they did the Streetscape on Hancock, it was reported that the vacancy rate was drastically reduced,” Washlesky said. “It will help us fill the vacant spaces, I’m thinking that after Streetscape it will be much easier to lease the space out because it will have that fresh face about it. It was proven that it did that for Hancock so we’re hoping of a repeat of that.”

The plans for Phase Two are to make the portion of Wayne Street look like Hancock Street. They are replacing water lines, fire lines and electrical conduits and the sidewalk will be concrete and brick with new streetlamps and planters.

There have been many different opinions on the construction downtown from local merchants. Located at 138 N. Wayne St., Metropolis Café manager Deepak Kumar had to close his restaurant the day the concrete was poured.

“It did slow the last month, especially at night, it’s pretty dark and nobody wants to come on this side of the town because there is no sidewalk and nobody wants to walk on an under construction road,” Kumar said.

Metropolis is located on the Northwest section of Wayne Street and the concrete has been poured and the bricks are being laid this week.

GCSU junior theater major Jared Powell agrees that the construction is affecting the downtown businesses.

“I think it’s stupid and unnecessary,” Powell said. “I feel like the construction is an inconvienience and a hazard at night because there are no sidewalks.”

A few doors down, Holsey TV Shop located at 134 North Wayne St. owner and manager Seabron Holsey is excited for the outcome of Streetscape.

“It hasn’t affected my business, people have been able to get in and out,” Holsey said, “I think it will look good and I’m kind of glad. They had a big flowerpot in front of my building and I’m glad they removed that.”

On the Southwest section of Wayne Street, the waterline has been placed and the fire line connections and electrical conduit still have to be installed before the concrete can be poured. Susan Martino owner of The Red Door, located at 133 S Wayne St., has been concerned since the construction began weeks ago.

“It’s definitely affected my business” Martino said. “We were told for the last couple of years at the meetings to count on about 2 weeks of disruption in front of our shops and then it would move on, it’s now eight weeks and you can see how it looks.”

The current construction is expected to be finished as soon as next week according to Washlesky.

“I do know this has been slower for the restaurants but it’s hard to say whether that has to do with Streetscape or if it’s just been because the students we on summer break. They may have lost a few customers to Streetscape but it’s kind of hard to say which one is the cause. That’s another reason we’ve tried to step up the attention and the advertising.”

“I wish I could be more positive but it’s hard when this is your only means of support,” Martino said. “A new sidewalk is not going to bring an extra penny to the city of Milledgeville or Baldwin County.”

Not everyone has the same outlook. Charmed Day Spa, located at 126 S Wayne St., has not noticed a drop in business since Phase Two began according to the manager and co-owner Dana Wolfe.

“I don’t think it really has affected our business but it may when (the construction) starts over here,” Wolfe said. “I think we’re the type of business that if they want to get a service or buy makeup, I don’t think parking somewhere else will really affect that. Plus, we have rear parking, and we try to get people to park in the back already.”

After the construction is done on the Western section, the Eastern side that runs in front of Charmed can start.

Also located on the Eastern side, Bill Massey, the owner of Middle Georgia Cards, Coins and Comics feels that the money from the $750,000 project could have been utilized better.

“If you go walking up and down Hancock St. (which they did about 5 years ago) you have chewing gum stuck everywhere, it looks terrible. That’s what this is going to look like after spending all of this money within two or three years. We could have probably used this money to do better things than dig up the sidewalk.”

Another concern from local businesses is the trees that were cut down on the South end of Wayne Street. Washlesky assures that 38 new trees are in the Streetscape plans and the old had to be removed because of infrastructure, sewer system, water line and storm drainage damage.

Despite Main Street efforts, many businesses have still been struggling.

“I know when they did the construction over there two or three businesses had to close because of it,” Massey said. “I’m hoping that does not happen over here. I hope everyone can hang on long enough to see it through.”

For more information contact Milledgeville Main Street at (478) 414-4014.

Posted by Katelyn Hebert on Aug 6 2010. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.