City To Fund Part of Downtown Revite

Written by Peter McIntyre 107.5 KISSFM Wednesday, 16 March 2011 09:43

The city of Vernon is trying to make downtown revitalization more affordable for merchants on 31st Avenue.  Council has agreed to pay for lights and trees for five blocks of the street, reducing the merchant's cost from 14-hundred dollars per meter of frontage, to $420,(benches, garbage cans and bike racks),  or another option costing $191 (decorative surfacing). The city work will be in conjunction to a capital works project in that area.  Councillor Mary Jo O'Keefe says the merchants will be voting on the idea, and for some, the cost will be an issue.  "In the future this would be very nice to have, a beautiful street and benches in front of your store. It will increase their business in the future, but we're asking for them to pay for it in a year that probably hasn't been their best year (financially)." Councillor Bob Spiers  was opposed to city taxpayers having to absorb 636-thousand dollars in costs. "It was just beyond me. I couldn't understand why we would accept that." Spiers says the project was originally approved in 2009 and now the city is changing the amount to be charged to the property owners for what he calls "decorative work."
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Don Quixote Note: You can go to page 181-183 of Agenda Package  to see  the 2 options available for the merchants along 31st ave and the cost of these items and also the cost of the trees and street-lighting that the City has agreed to fund for this revitalization. (This was passed 6-1 at Monday's meeting).

•  The original costs for LSA (Local Service Area) was approx $1400 per metre. (Total 1220m for entire 5 block project).  ($1,708,00)
• 3 items originally in the LSA Costs for Bollards, Twinkle Lights and a mid block feature were eliminated reducing the cost to the LSA by $525/m. ($640,500)
• City assumed responsibility for street lighting ($179/m =$216,000)  and Trees ($343/m =$418,000) and this reduced the original LSA costs by $522/m = Total $636,000. 
• The LSA has the option of accepting Decorative, coloured concrete at a cost of $191/m ($232,000) under option 1.
• The LSA has the option of accepting Decorative, coloured concrete at a cost of $191/m ($232,000) and adding street furniture at a cost of $229/m ($279,000).