Next year, a downtown Greenwood alley will be redone with pavers, instead of asphalt, and large heating and air conditioning units will be removed, creating a path between businesses and shops for pedestrians.
The alley behind several buildings at the northwest corner of Madison Avenue and Main Street has long been an eyesore, city officials said. This project is one the city described as essential to efforts to revitalize the downtown area.
The estimated $250,000 project, which would need to be approved by the Greenwood Redevelopment Commission, is not the first alley the city has fixed up. In the last year, the city repaved about six other alleys, which officials said have long been neglected.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery
Last summer, workers resurfaced alleys in the area between Madison Avenue, Wiley Street, Meridian Street and Broadway Street.
But this alley would be redone, with pavers and heating and air conditioning equipment moved either on top of roofs or relocated to a side of the building that won’t be in the way, capital projects manager Kevin Steinmetz said.
If downtown Greenwood is going to be cleaned up, this is an area that has to be a top priority, redevelopment commission member Chuck Landon said.
On Madison Avenue, the alley’s entrance is north of a building that Planetary Brewing recently acquired for an expansion and renovation project that is being partially funded by a redevelopment commission grant.
The alley goes west, past the Planetary Brewing building before heading south to Main Street.
Earlier this week, the redevelopment commission unanimously approved paying a consultant about $19,000 to create plans to redesign the alley as a pedestrian path. The board would still need to approve the project once designs are complete. The study is planned to be complete by the end of the year, and work would begin next spring.
