Penticton Western News, October 07, 2015

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NEWS PENTICTON WESTERN

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Two life sentences for double murder in Princeton

VOL. 49 ISSUE 80

DEADLINE TO ENTER IS OCTOBER 13, 2015 @ 4PM

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2015

9

entertainment Boogie woogie rocker popping into Dream

13

sports Penticton Vees primed to

take on the Trail Smoke Eaters

CORE CHANGES Steve Kidd

Western News Staff

NEWS PENTICTON WESTERN

By the end of 2016, Penticton’s Main Street is going to look a lot different. Penticton City Council voted at their Oct. 4 meeting to move ahead with revitalization plans for the 100 and 200 blocks of Main Street at a cost of $4.3 million. “It’s been about three years and counting as we move forward,” said Barb Haynes, chair of the Downtown Select Revitalization Committee, who said that after all that time and energy spent trying to determine the wants of the community, the committee decided the northern end of Main Street was the place to start. “We want it to be a visually enhanced space, particularly in the 100 block since it is surrounded by green space and park space,” said Haynes. “We know that it needs to be a convertible space, something that can be used, not just for one idea but for many.” The plan laid out for council Monday evening shows similar improvements to those made last year on Martin Street, with paving stones replacing concrete sidewalks, along with additional street trees, planting beds, benches, bike racks and other amenities. The portion of the street next to Gyro Park will be getting special treatment, acknowledging it is commonly closed off for events like the Farmers Market, Challenge Penticton or the Gran Fondo bike race. In that section, the asphalt road surface will also be replaced with paving stones and raised to be level with the sidewalk areas. A light canopy is also planned for overhead. To make it easier to close that section of the street off, a link road between Main and Martin Street will be constructed to divert traffic. Main Street will also be narrowed to two lanes through both blocks to make room for wider sidewalks, especially in front of city hall, where 66 angled parking spots are to be replaced with parallel parking, for a total of 46 spots on both sides of the road instead of the current 94. “If you walk out in front of city hall right

We want it to be a visually enhanced space, particularly in the 100 block since it is surrounded by green space and park space. — Barb Haynes

now, you have a pretty small sidewalk in front of a major civic facility. It was felt it was important to make that sidewalk bigger,” said director of operations Mitch Moroziuk, who suggested the loss of 48 parking spots could be ameliorated by dedicating 18 spots behind City Hall to public parking, where they can access the building’s rear entrance. “You have to retrain your public. The public would still have a place to park,” said Moroziuk. Haynes said the committee continually heard from the community and individuals that wanted them to consider not planning the space around vehicles, but planning it around public use. Moroziuk said about $2.7 million of the total $4.3 million cost is expected to come from grants, with the remaining $1.7 million coming from a variety of the city’s accounts, reflecting the water and power infrastructure work that will be done as part of the project, like replacing the old cast iron water mains. Should the grants not come through, Moroziuk suggested the shortfall could be made up by the city transferring funds from other projects, increasing the contribution from land owners or borrowing the money. Coun. Helena Konanz, the only council member to vote against the plan was concerned about the cost to do just two blocks of the six that will eventually get the same treatment.

25% off Selected BBQ’s!

FOGGY LENSES — Kelowna’s Doug Eades does the grape stomp with his Monster Smash team members during the first round of the competition at the annual Festival of the Grape event in Oliver Sunday. The team finished out of the top three however did win best costume. For more on the Festival of the Grape visit pages 12 and 20.

STARTS TODAY!

Large BBQ inventory clear out, All makes and models to Mark Brett/Western News See DOWNTOWN on PG. 3 choose from, Just look for the pink tags!

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