MONROE - Despite the construction season, downtown Monroe businesses and supporters want people to feel good about the new Square.
"It may be dirty and dusty, but we have a plan," Monroe Main Street Director Barb Nelson said.
Nelson is pitching a program entitled "Thriving during construction" to organizations and other groups across the City of Monroe.
She is taking requests to show people how the downtown reconstruction project will unfold.
Nelson started her informative talk with pictures of torn up streets and dirt heaps during the downtown reconstruction from 60 years ago.
"It's not going to happen like this," she said with a laugh, at the Monroe Main Street Promotion Committee meeting Tuesday at Turner Hall.
The new downtown reconstruction project is not just about pretty flowers and trees.
"There are electrical and sewer problems to deal with, and serious infrastructure problems in the sidewalks and streets," Nelson said.
E & N Hughes Company, Inc., Monroe, started the new water main installation Monday, and is already ahead of the expected schedule, even though they are hitting rock, said Fehr-Graham's Community Development Specialist Tom Purdy in an phone interview Tuesday afternoon.
The water main is new and going in virgin ground, which is why the crews hit rock at times, Purdy said.
The water main installation portion of the project was scheduled to last three weeks, in anticipation of the rock.
The new water main will run between the Square's streets; the two older water mains run closer to the outside sidewalks.
In the next few days construction will be turning the first corner, but will not stop traffic.
"They will not close down any more streets. They are packing the soil as the go along," Purdy said.
With the enclosure of old coal vaults along the sidewalks almost finished, bids for other parts of the construction project will be going out within days.
Nelson said the downtown reconstruction project is divided up into smaller jobs, so as to use local contractors as much as possible.
"The job was too big for any single local contractor in the area," Nelson said.
The street and sidewalk work will progress counter-clockwise in phases, with each phase encompassing one intersection of the square at a time.
Meetings with contractors for downtown businesses representatives and the public will begin in two-three weeks.
"We are not going to move anything we don't have to," Nelson told the promotion committee about their events.
"Concerts on the Square, the farmers' market and definitely the Chili Cook-off, will still be downtown," she said.
"It may be dirty and dusty, but we have a plan," Monroe Main Street Director Barb Nelson said.
Nelson is pitching a program entitled "Thriving during construction" to organizations and other groups across the City of Monroe.
She is taking requests to show people how the downtown reconstruction project will unfold.
Nelson started her informative talk with pictures of torn up streets and dirt heaps during the downtown reconstruction from 60 years ago.
"It's not going to happen like this," she said with a laugh, at the Monroe Main Street Promotion Committee meeting Tuesday at Turner Hall.
The new downtown reconstruction project is not just about pretty flowers and trees.
"There are electrical and sewer problems to deal with, and serious infrastructure problems in the sidewalks and streets," Nelson said.
E & N Hughes Company, Inc., Monroe, started the new water main installation Monday, and is already ahead of the expected schedule, even though they are hitting rock, said Fehr-Graham's Community Development Specialist Tom Purdy in an phone interview Tuesday afternoon.
The water main is new and going in virgin ground, which is why the crews hit rock at times, Purdy said.
The water main installation portion of the project was scheduled to last three weeks, in anticipation of the rock.
The new water main will run between the Square's streets; the two older water mains run closer to the outside sidewalks.
In the next few days construction will be turning the first corner, but will not stop traffic.
"They will not close down any more streets. They are packing the soil as the go along," Purdy said.
With the enclosure of old coal vaults along the sidewalks almost finished, bids for other parts of the construction project will be going out within days.
Nelson said the downtown reconstruction project is divided up into smaller jobs, so as to use local contractors as much as possible.
"The job was too big for any single local contractor in the area," Nelson said.
The street and sidewalk work will progress counter-clockwise in phases, with each phase encompassing one intersection of the square at a time.
Meetings with contractors for downtown businesses representatives and the public will begin in two-three weeks.
"We are not going to move anything we don't have to," Nelson told the promotion committee about their events.
"Concerts on the Square, the farmers' market and definitely the Chili Cook-off, will still be downtown," she said.