Georgetown_web

town and the spring is here.That spring is what our water company uses to produce finished wa- ter for most of the city. From there it goes through Royal Springs Park and then through a viaduct un- derneath the stack stone, historic bridge. So,we’re going to improve that area, add lighting, and try and slow some of the vehicles coming into town. “It’s actually quite timely because our main downtown restaurant just relocated to where the bridge ends and you enter downtown George- town, proper.We had a lot of issues with pedestri- ans trying to cross the street and so this TAP Grant is going to help with that intersection and farther west of town. “And Royal Springs Park was included in the project that the University of Cincinnati students completed and I have some money in the budget, this year, to hire an engineer for a feasibility study on implementing a part of that project - a city- scape on North and SouthWater Streets.These two streets line up against where Royal Springs comes out, and we think that will tie in nicely to what we’re doing with the TAP Grant. “We’ve got one other project I’d like to talk about: it’s called the Lemons Mill Road widening project.The project estimate is about $650,000. We’re under contract with the engineer, ECSI, and we currently have our final plans about complete. The State Department of Transportation is review- ing those plans now.And what’s interesting about this project is the funding.We have more than half of the budget from the state; we have money from the city and the county, and we have fund- ing from the local industries that would benefit BVM: Does Georgetown have a downtown core that’s ripe for redevelopment? Goodwin: “I would say we’re on the cusp.Our downtown is not a big one, but there’s plenty of area for redevelopment, and what’s been happen- ing recently is we’ve had more restaurants come downtown–non-chain restaurants. So,we’ve seen an increase in pedestrian and vehicular traffic. I’m not sure we have the housing there, yet, and I’mwaiting for something like that to happen, because with all the experience-focused things that are coming downtown, I would assume that’s going to follow. “This past year, the mayor met with students from the University of Cincinnati; they spent a lot of time downtown, taking pictures and looking at planning documents, and tried to envision how to transform downtown Georgetown into a more modern city.They presented that report this past winter.They were great ideas, but when you’re looking at a $30 million price tag for a city with a $25 million budget. . . “But one project we are getting ready to start: we recently received a TAP (Transportation Alter- natives Program) Grant from the KentuckyTrans- portation Cabinet.We had planned three phases at a total of about $2 million. For the first phase, we’ll receive $720,000; it will include pedestrian access improvements,walkability improvements, traffic calming, stormwater, and infrastructure improvements at the entrance to the city on the western side.And we’re going to rehabilitate the historic stack stone bridge that we have.The Royal Springs aquifer goes from Lexington to George- GEORGETOWN, KENTUCKY