$1.5 Million Dollar Street Improvement Project Coming To South Church Street

Livingston has received a $500,000 Appalachian Regional Commission grant for improvements to South Church Street.

Downtown Revitalization Chair Ray Evans said the city plans to match it with $1 million making for a $1.5 million project.

“We will be placing all of the overhead utilities underground, constructing new sidewalks and drainage system and improving the parking and handicap compliance as well,” Evans said.

Evans said the utility work continues an ongoing goal for the city. Evans said a few years ago the same project was conducted around the courthouse.

“It made a terrific difference in the appearance and the appeal of the courthouse square,” Evans said. “So we wanted to continue that down South Church Street. We started looking at photographs of the buildings as part of the façade grant improvement program about a year ago. The thing that stuck out to us wasn’t the buildings, but all the utility lines that were blocking the view of the buildings.”

As for the sidewalks and drainage system, Evans said the infrastructure is in disrepair. Evans said the goal is to clean up the street to complement the businesses while increasing community use.

“It’s pretty sad frankly,” Evans said. “The sidewalks are inconsistent and broken up. The storm drain system is collapsing in several places as well. We just want a nice, clean urban road section appearance.”

Evans said the plan is to start the design process in August. Evans said a start date is not known at this time.

“It’s been absolutely amazing the improvements across the central business district,” Evans said. “The thing that I have noticed too is the public sector investment has just been leveraged by the private sector investment.”