Surprise gas main delays Fourth Street Placemaking Project

Belleville Downtown Development Authority Coordinator Carol Thompson gave an update on the Fourth Street Placemaking Project at the DDA’s Oct. 21 Zoom meeting.
She said the 91-place library parking lot next door had its base coat of asphalt down and Fourth Street asphalt will be done by the same company.
She said they found an unmarked gas main during demolition of the street and had to reshoot some of the topography.
They are impacting the soil for the curbs and in two weeks the stamped concrete will be in place and then the base coat of asphalt.
Thompson said the special tree grates for Fourth Street are being made at the other side of the country.
She said Museum Director Katie Dallos, now on furlough from Van Buren Township, confirmed she received a $25,000 grant from Michigan State Arts which will pay for the building connector between the museum and the former fire hall, which is now a storage area for the museum. This will be adjoining the Fourth Street project.
“It will be beautiful,” Thompson said.
In other business at the 26-minute, Oct. 21 meeting, the DDA:
• Approved Community Event Funding of $2,000 each for the Belleville-Area Chamber of Commerce and the Belleville Central Business Community for promotions of their community events. City Manager Tracey Schultz Kobylarz said there have been changes to the Chamber’s Winter Fest plans. In a committee meeting that afternoon the parade committee decided the safest way to host a lighted parade was not to hold it, because the health department, State of Michigan, and federal government could stop it because of COVID. She said the Chamber’s fireworks is still a go. The $2,000 grants are contingent on the Chamber and the CBC being able to hold their events, as listed on their applications. The CBC’s Santa event is still under consideration as the CBC shows Kobylarz their plans;
• Heard Thompson report there were an exceptional number of scarecrows put on Main Street and many businesses participated in making the scarecrows;
• Heard DDA chairwoman Alicia McGovern say a few months earlier the DDA became a member of the Association for DDAs and other folks now are learning from Belleville. Thompson said others around the state are asking questions about how the city got its DORA started. She has talked to Ferndale which wants to start DORA in the spring. They also wanted to know about the restaurant rally Belleville had. “Everyone is figuring out the new normal,” Thompson said;
• Heard DDA member Jennifer Winter comment that she is “bummed we’re taking everything away,” referring to the most-recent parade cancellation. “If people are scared, they won’t come,” she said;
• Heard chairwoman McGovern say in her experience people are taking COVID in different ways. She said people should try to be patient and understanding of one another. “Once you take something away, people wonder if it will come back … I’m looking forward to 2021. It’s gotta be better than this year,” McGovern said;
• Heard DDA member Jason Mida say he traveled to the west side of the state and saw that Kalamazoo and Marshall had skeletons instead of scarecrows decorated. “Skeletons added so much more,” Mida said, noting it probably cost more than scarecrows. Mayor Kerreen Conley added that Northville has skeletons; and
• Heard DDA member Kelly McWilliams ask if Winter Fest might be a good time for a ladies’ night out, like they had in the past. Thompson said she would work with McWilliams on that and they could have a phone conversation. McGovern added maybe this would be a good time to have pop-up shops.