Revitalizing downtown

Miriam Ostermann, Times Associate editor
With construction of infrastructure and the Downtown Enhancement Project inching closer, Strathmore’s business community remains uncertain about the reality of the impact and interference on their business and are searching for information and clarification – a concern the Town of Strathmore said is a major focus moving forward.
Later this month, Strathmore’s downtown will receive a major facelift with a total approved budget of $1,250,000. The upgrades will include plaza areas at a number of intersections, street furniture, decorative lighting, planters and greenery, and new sidewalks as part of the Downtown Enhancement Project, one of numerous large-scale projects in the community associated with Strathmore’s celebration of Canada 150.
To save cost and time, the town approved $500,000 from their Municipal Sustainability Initiative fund previously to allocate to a storm water drainage pipe – currently non-existent in the proposed area – to be undertaken concurrently.
As a result, construction will occur on 2nd Avenue from 3rd Street to Lakeside Boulevard later this month. While feedback from local businesses has been mixed – from excitement to have long-overdue upgrades taking place, to concern with the impact on foot traffic, parking, and overall lack of concrete information such as start and finish dates – town staff is focused on informing the community and businesses and reducing possible impact.
“There’s no other way to do it… We want to be forward thinking, it’s a cheap way to do it and you only need to close the street once,” said Chuck Procter, planner for the Town of Strathmore. “That’s why we’re thinking put the storm line in so we don’t need to close it again a couple years down the road when we have an issue with flooding.
[The businesses] don’t know exactly what we’re doing yet to help them … I’m hoping that business will increase for these two months because of all the extra attention it’s going to be getting from the newspaper, Facebook and at town meetings. We’re throwing some marketing at this for sure.”
Procter added that feet have been on the ground two weeks ago as his team approached local businesses to inform them of the situation. Furthermore, he said efforts to reach out to the downtown community are being made through e-mail, door knocking, social media, and weekly meetings.
Despite supporting the changes in infrastructure and beautification of Strathmore’s core, local business owner and Chair of the Downtown Design Review Committee(DDRC), that is made up of town staff, citizens, and council members, Glenn Freeland is concerned with the ambiguity and doesn’t agree with the town’s suggestion to have clients and customers access stores and business via alley entrance. “It’s been years and it’s about time,” said Freeland. “We’re not getting any information. You can’t force businesses to have alley access for the plain simple fact that not all businesses have alley access. There’s no good time if you have to do infrastructure. Honestly the only good time to do infrastructure where you have to close down roads and access is in the summer. Just bite the bullet, do it, get it done as quickly as possible.”
The DDRC has spent years offering suggestions to enhancements of the downtown and held numerous open houses, sent out surveys and even had a booth at various festivals and Canada Day celebrations. In January, the municipality borrowed $6 million to finance land and building acquisitions for municipal purposes, capital improvements to the Aquatic Centre and Lambert Centre, construction of Pathways and downtown street improvements. Up to $750,000 will also be spent from the budget towards the Downtown Enhancement Project.
Strathmore town council adopted the Downtown Overlay Bylaw and the Downtown Design Review Committee Bylaw in 2013. In addition, the Strathmore Municipal Development Plan also supports the upgrades to 2nd Avenue.
“Having a thriving, attractive downtown is essential for a strong community,” said Mayor Michael Ell in a press release. “Council is committed to continuing the investment to increase the health and attractiveness of downtown. We recognize that construction is disruptive but it is important to address the need for storm water drainage in the downtown now.”
Any municipality has three major infrastructure within their roadway; a storm line, a sanitary line, and a water line. Currently, a majority of Strathmore is overland drainage. In speaking with Mustafa Hashimi, infrastructure technician with the Town of Strathmore, the initiative is to add storm lines every time a major replacement takes place. The storm lines allow for more capacity and for better management of storm water.
The tender on the project closed on July 12, whereupon Hashimi said more concrete dates will be released. However an expected completion date is set for the end of September.
The angle and parallel parking stall layout that is currently in place will not be affected.
Services and businesses will remain open during construction, while 2nd Avenue from 3rd Street to Lakeside Boulevard will be close to traffic.
The town can also be reached specifically about this issue at downtown@Strathmore.ca.
Despite the two-month disruption to the downtown core, the DDRC is optimistic that once the enhancements are complete it’ll have a snowball effect on future projects.
“It’s the egg and the chicken, the horse and the cart, do you need more people downtown before you start doing this or do you need to do all this to attract the people to come downtown,” said Freeland. “Let’s be realistic it’s probably a combination of both. If we had started this 20 years ago, we wouldn’t be in this position today. If we don’t’ start it today then 20 years from now we’re going to have the same arguments. So just do it.”