Libby Streetscape planning continues
City takes over planning process from LRI-Main Street
January 31, 2007
The City of Libby, downtown property owners, and Libby Revitalization-Main Street Program met to discuss what the downtown property owners want to see done to bring life to downtown.
It was a consensus building meeting. One consensus was clear. The property owners were not interested in the $7-million dollar streetscape plan as originally designed. Nor were they excited about the pared down $3-million dollar version revised by LRI.
What did interest them was replacement of the current street lighting; better, not fancy sidewalks; signage, perhaps some of historical note; and maybe trees or shrubs, and public art, such as more eagle sculptures lining Mineral Avenue.
Gone are the center block crossings, the intersection concrete work, leaf imprinted sidewalks, kiosks, benches, the bronze medallions, and the entrance to downtown arch.
"If you're gonna make us look like every other town, why are we spending all this money?" asked Wayne Hirst of the Downtown Libby Association. "Do we want to transform this town, or do we just want to make it look nicer?" he asked.
"A lot of the opposition will go away if it did not cost so much," said Hirst.
Property owners did not want to discuss a $100 per lineal foot cost of the original streetscape plan; many felt $75 per foot was too much, but they settled on seeing what could be accomplished with $25 per foot. At 55-hundred feet of Mineral Avenue frontage that will raise about 138-thousand dollars. That's a big difference from $7-million, and will do a lot less.
Perhaps the most significant thing to come out of the meeting was the City of Libby assuming control of the project from LRI-Main Street. Councilman Doug Roll thanked LRI for bringing the streetscape project this far, and told the group, "We'll take it from here."
Story by KLCB Libby News Radio, www.todaysbestcountryonline.com
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