News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
City of Cookeville will take the next step on the Cedar Avenue connector between downtown and Tennessee Tech.
City Manager James Mills said that the project was in discussion for several months. He said the project would cost some $450,000, using monies from the economic development and transportation funds.
“It would entail mimicking the streetscape we did on Cedar from 2nd to 7th, and bringing it from 2nd to Broad,” Mills said. “So that you’d have continuous bike lanes and sidewalks and streetscape from Broad St. to 7th St.”
Mills said that doing the project would involve removing some of the on-street parking. He said that the city wanted to make sure business owners along that stretch would be in favor of that because it affects them.
Mills said that after conversations with the property owners, they believe most are in favor as long alternative parking is provided. He said that the city has been working on a new parking lot that is almost complete, and that they are continuing to look for other alternatives. Mills said that they are hopeful the allocated funds will cover the cost.
“Of course once you start digging in an old part of town you never know what you’re going to run into,” Mills said. “(…) One of our concerns is that when we looked at this, with the new parking lot on the east side of Cedar we were concerned with all of the pedestrian traffic and crossing the street there especially with on-street parking which affects the visibility. We thought it would be safer to remove the on-street parking and with that having the bike lanes and increasing pedestrian mobility.”
