Garrett Downtown Beautification First Phase
Article by Sue Carpenter | KPC News | December 11, 2020
GARRETT — Under sunny skies on a mild December afternoon, a ribbon-cutting was held for theJudy Morrill Beautification Project in Garrett.
“I’m just spellbound,” Morrill said Thursday as she looked over the stretch of newly-laid concreteand freshly sown grass. The lifelong Garrett resident and former owner of Electric Motors andSpecialties funded the nearly $100,000 project in the 300-to-500 blocks of South Randolph Street.
Good weather helped move the project forward. It began in late September and was completed a few-weeks ago.
Matt Faber, project manager of M.F. Projects in Waterloo, along with subcontractors Zeedyk Tree-Service, Messer Brothers Construction and Knott Excavating, removed sidewalks and some 27decades-old, unhealthy trees along both sides of the nearly 1/3-mile-long stretch, replaced them with new concrete sidewalks and replanted the grass. Plans are to plant about three dozen smaller, street-friendly autumn blaze maple trees along the three-block residential area in the spring.
The vision of the improvement began about two years ago when Morrill asked Mayor Todd Fiandt about the sidewalk improvement projects she had seen underway around the city.
Fiandt then organized a meeting with Morrill, City Attorney Dan Brinkerhoff and City Planner Milton Otero to share the city’s vision begun in 2010 when they created a Master Travel Safety Plan that outlined every sidewalk and every corner in the city and its conditions.
Through several Safe Routes to School and Community Crossing grants over the years, more than$1.2 million has been spent on sidewalks, in addition to the city’s 50/50 residential sidewalk replacement program, which has funded more than $195,000 in eight years, Otero said.
During the meeting, Morrill said she was very impressed by all the work over the years and wanted to contribute to the sidewalk efforts and offered to fund more improvements. When asked where her donation could be best utilized, Otero shared how the Indiana Department of Transportation just paved Randolph Street from S.R. 8 to S.R. 205 and reconstructed every corner along the route with Americans with Disabilities Act ramps.
“It made sense to create a wonderful corridor coming into Garrett from the south,” said Otero. “The mayor’s intent is to go all the way south to the Dollar General Store and then concentrate going north all the way to the entrance of North Pointe Crossing.”
While some residents initially were surprised with the openness of the streets where the old trees once stood, city leaders said they have received lots of positive comments on the improvements by phone, in person and on social media.
Morrill agreed.
“I think it’s just wonderful,” she said of the project at Thursday’s ribbon-cutting at the corner of Randolph at McHenry streets.
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