Downtown Street Project to Begin in Wetumpka
Downtown Wetumpka’s sidewalks and streets are getting a face-lift. It’s all part of the city’s downtown street project, that begins this week.
“We’re looking forward to it. It’s been about six years in the making to get to this point,” said Wetumpka Mayor Jerry Willis.
The project involves, improving sidewalks and repaving all of the downtown streets.
“We have an old downtown. We started a few years ago replacing all the infrastructure underground and we got all that put in and this is another phase and another phase,” said Willis.
Tuesday, people living and working in downtown Wetumpka learned how traffic would flow and the efforts to keep businesses open during construction.
“We would encourage traffic to take another route. Don’t try and come downtown if you don’t have to come downtown. If you’re coming downtown to do business – you have business downtown by all means come downtown,” said Willis.
Paula Sargent, the owner of “The Gab” in downtown Wetumpka knows first-hand the changes the project brings.
Last year, crews worked to refresh the area in front of her shop.
“We have brand new sidewalk which is expanded. It’s wide. I mean literally a car can drive down our sidewalk. We have beautiful landscaping pretty trees out front,” said Sargent.
Mayor Jerry Willis says the project compliments everything the city has already done.
“More businesses are coming in and opening up downtown. There’s more loft living apartment living downtown. Riverwalk is wonderful so it’s just building on all of this,” said Willis.
Mayor Willis says if you have to come downtown, there will be police available that will direct people for parking. He advises for downtown shop owners to find off-street parking during the construction period.
The project is expected to last for 70 working days.
