(Arnolds Park)– Look for some major changes on Lake Street in Arnolds Park in the not too distant future. Mayor Jim Hussong says he met Wednesday with representatives of Imagine Iowa Great Lakes and reviewed some of the tentative plans for the work. He says it will be taking place from the intersection with West Broadway to the State Pier…
“Basically they’re going to put pavers inside of there. They’re going to lower the curbs. They’re worried about the curbs that are presently there as being a trip hazard so they’re going to be more of kind of a slope and not a big step off to get inside of there. They’re going to add bolsters on there. The bolsters are going to be in place on weekends so it’s going to be more of a pedestrian mall on the weekends so people can walk through there. There’s different areas that they’ve made for deliveries to be brought in there but for the most part during the day it will be closed just to walking traffic. They’ve kind of rounded out the, down by the State Pier, and to make it so that it’s not so easy to park. People tend to like to park there, which is a no parking zone, so they’ll be more enforced on that side of it. There’s going to be some lighting that’s going to be added over the top of it so that at night it will have just a nice cool glow and it will just be kind of like some of the things that you see in Colorado and Aspen and places like that.”
Hussong says they’re hoping to start construction either this coming fall or winter…
“They want to try to make sure that they have the least impact on everybody that’s in there so they’re going to try to actually even may push it into winter and using tents to keep it warm and to get everything out of there.”
Hussong says they are now in the process of getting cost estimates put together…
“Part of it, you know, is what the infrastructure underneath of it will cost, who’s going to pay for it between Imagine and the city, and kind of working out the fine details. But they just wanted to kind of get our feedback on it and so far everybody that’s seen it has loved it.”
Hussong updated the city council on the discussions at their meeting Wednesday evening.
The Arnolds Park City Council also Wednesday heard an update on plans for a new fire station to be constructed immediately east of city hall. City Clerk Linda Nase says they recently reviewed architectural renderings and that it will have a retro look to it…
“With the arched windows and glass doors, kind of bring us back into the olden days, per se, if you would. We’re looking at a preliminary cost estimate the bill came in at just over $2.1 million and that’s still preliminary. There’s still ground work to do, there’s still some other soft costs involved.”
Plans call for city offices to expand and for some to relocate to the space currently occupied by the fire station. Nase says the next step is to get cost estimates on that part of the project…
“The next phase is to work with CMBA out of Spencer to put together an agreement to start planning the design for the city hall, Police Department and the library, and once that’s done we can get a cost estimate for the entire project and go forward from there.”
She says the project will be funded through a bond issue and that they’re hoping to keep the cost at $5 million or under.
