BICKNELL — After nearly three years of planning, work is expected to start this fall on a project that will bring sidewalks and curbs to several streets in the city.
Mayor Jon Flickinger said Bicknell is set to receive just under $200,000 in federal funds as a part of the Indiana Safe Routes to School Program.
The reimbursement program has already helped pay for the traffic flow studies that will aid in the implementation of safe walking or bike routes to the North Knox Primary School and will now fund the minor construction needed to improve the routes.
Flickinger said work will begin on Sixth Street, travel two blocks to Fourth Street, then jump to Washington Street and move two more city blocks to Freelandville Avenue. Freelandville Avenue will then see improvements on about a block.
Each route will have new curbs and sidewalks intended to encourage youngsters to walk or ride to school and provide a safe way to do so.
“We’ve jumped through the hoops and now we’re finally looking at spending some of this money and following through on what we’ve been planning for so long,” Flickinger said. “We’ve had this grant standing in a sort of limbo for two years while we’ve had engineers and administrators working to get the project off the ground.”
Councilman Butch Byrer said the impact of the project will have a positive effect on the school, but will also have benefits stretching throughout the community.
“It’s exciting,” he said. “As the name suggests, it’s going to provide a safer route for the kids here. We’re fixing up the sidewalks, marking the crosswalks, making it safer an entire radius all around the school, it’s good for the school and it’s good for the community.”
Developing the safe routes, Byrer added, will expand on the downtown renovations project, adding a cohesive flow throughout downtown.
“With the downtown revitalization project coming up this is going to expand that, and we’ll be able to leverage all of these grant dollars to help benefit the community overall,” he said. “The school is just a block off Main Street, so it coincides with that project to make downtown, and really the whole city, better, instead of just focusing on Main Street.”
Officials are moving forward on developing plans for the $1 million downtown revitalization project, Flickinger added. Bids for the project are expected to be advertised in November, awarded in December with work to begin early next spring.
The renovation work will give the city a much-needed facelift, bringing new curbs, sidewalks and street lamps downtown on Main Street.
“Just like the Safe Routes program, this one has been a long time coming,” Byrer said. “Here in the next few months, before the year’s out, we’re going to get the ball rolling on both of them, and that’s exciting for this community, that’s big.”
A former department store that’s stood crumbling for years at the corner of Third and Main streets is expected to be razed today, and three other Main Street properties damaged by fire earlier this year will come down later this summer.
“Downtown is going to be a mess for a little while, but once we get to the other side it’ll all be worth it, it’s going to be something we’re proud of,” Flickinger said. “We want to raise the quality of life and make people proud to call Bicknell their home.”