The City of Frankfort will be in the midst of a lot of change in 2018. Mayor Chris McBarnes says all of these projects have a specific though in mind.
“All of this is to build a quality of place in Frankfort so we get home builders to come here and get more younger families to move back,” said McBarnes. “Another thing I want to do is synergize a new housing development here in Frankfort.”
McBarnes said a couple of projects — Safe Routes to Schools and Washington Avenue — will basically lead off the year. Safe Routes to School is expected to add over 8,100 linear feet of sidewalks to the southwest and northwest quadrants of the community and give children who go to Suncrest along with Blue Ridge and Green Meadows a safer way to get to school.
The Washington Avenue project will reconstruct that street down to Williams Street and possibly Oneil Street. McBarnes said it depends on how bids come in.
McBarnes said they hope to learn from their mistakes of a year ago on the Community Crossings matching grant and be able to pave more streets than ever in the city. He added Parks Superintendent Travis Sheets will have a lot of projects for the parks, including finishing up the restrooms at TPA Park and the bird aviary before heading out to the satellite parks and improve them.
McBarnes also said there will be a lot of change coming to the downtown area thanks to the downtown revitalization plan. He said he hopes to unveil projects such as Prairie Creek Park and Project Home Run in the first portion of the year.
“I’m currently silent fundraising on those two projects,” said McBarnes about Prairie Creek Park and Project Home Run. “Once we raise $3 million from the private sector, I want to make an announcement and unveil the renderings for these projects. These projects will completely transform the way people look at the downtown and western gateway of our city. We think these projects will definitely spur the local economy.”
City officials are currently mulling over the police station rehabilitation project. At this time, city officials have decided to take a step back and reassess which way they want to go on the project which is currently listed at $7.2 million.
In addition, there will be work on city utilities that includes the water and wastewater plants.
‘There will be a lot of construction in the city this year and a lot of our projects that we’ve been planning for will be coming to fruition,” said McBarnes.
Also, the Nickel Plate Flats apartment complex is expected to be done in June as well as a proposed new look for the old Flavors building downtown where a diner will be on the main floor and apartments will be located upstairs.
One thing to look forward to in 2019 is the reconstruction project of State Road 28.