GRAVETTE -- An open public forum was held just preceding the regular meeting of the city council last Thursday night. The purpose of the forum was to seek input from citizens regarding the proposed Main Street improvement project before the final design phase. Large, printed copies of the initial design plan were on display.
About 50 citizens attended the meeting and several asked questions and made comments. Several Main Street business owners expressed concern about their front entrances being closed for months and how that would adversely affect their businesses. Kurt Maddox, Gravette mayor, said the alley north of Main Street was to be paved before the project began and access through the back entrances would thus be improved.
Initial plans call for all parking spaces on the north and south side of Main Street to be parallel parking spaces, leaving only 41 parking spaces on Main. Since so many parking spaces would be lost, someone asked whether only one side of the street could be converted to parallel parking and the other side could remain conventional angle parking. Mayor Maddox said he could ask the engineers to make that change in the design. When asked if parking on Main Street would still be free, Maddox assured the questioner it would be.
Another question was asked about whether sidewalks could be made narrower and Maddox said that would be possible but they could not be so narrow as to make them wheelchair inaccessible. He also said there would be a ramp at Second Street to make the plan ADA compliant.
Tammie Loyd, owner of Sophie's Boutique, asked if work on Main Street could be delayed until after Christmas since the holiday season is a high traffic time for Main Street businesses. Paulette Austin, from Austin Drug, said that January would be getting into the flu season and many of their customers would be coming in for medication. Jodi Moore, owner of Dynamic Rhythm dance studio, suggested that since she was the only business owner on Second Street and her building had multiple entrances, perhaps work could be done on Second Street first and work on Main Street could follow.
General News on 08/03/2016