Menu
Wall Street, Main Street, Skubitz Plaza could see facelift
By 2012, downtown Fort Scott and Wall Street could look quite different.
The Fort Scott City Commission will hold a meeting at 5 p.m., Dec. 29, in which they will discuss the city's possible application for a Transportation Enhancement Grant which would fund 80 percent of the cost of three projects which would change the way tourists view and navigate Fort Scott's historical downtown and Skubitz Plaza.
According to Fort Scott Director of Economic Development Dale Bunn, the three project included in the grant application include the transition of Main Street to two-way traffic, a remodel of Skubitz Plaza which would provide a better transition to the downtown area, and an overhaul of Wall Street to a more boulevard style (see photo) to attract tourists traveling U.S. Highway 69.
Carrying a price tag nearing $3 million, the city would have to come up with close to $1 million after design and engineering fees. Bunn said if the funding can be secured, the rewards will include economic development and increased tourism to the Fort Scott National Historic Site and the downtown area.
"The concern that we have is where do we find the funding," Bunn said. "The return should be there on the entire project."
The options the commission plan to discuss is whether to seek funding to complete all three projects, seek funding to complete only a portion of the projects, or to pass on the opportunity and hope the grant money is available again in two years.
"There is no guarantee the money will be available in two years," Bunn said.
Seeming the most financially feasible option, the overhaul of Wall Street would prove to be the most beneficial. Stemming form former President of the Fort Scott Area Chamber of Commerce Gary Emry's idea of creating a gateway to Fort Scott, the redesign would create a eye catching entrance into Fort Scott and the downtown area.
"That's probably the most attractive thing ... the people at the (U.S. Hwy. 69) corridor study meetings have really found it attractive ... this boulevard creation of Wall Street," Bunn said. "I think it has gotten the biggest raves of anything they've seen come out of the corridor study."
According to the study's design firm, the work would be completed without the widening of Wall Street. With a slightly more manageable price tag, the renovations would cost a about $300,000 with the city being responsible for $106,000 after design and engineering fees.
"If you are just going to do a small part, do the one with the highest visibility ... and that's Wall Street," Bunn said.
Renovations to Skubitz Plaza is by far the most expensive project of the three costing about $2.75 million. However the new design is not a new idea. According to Bunn, the FSNHS had previously hired an architect with the National Park Service to redesign the plaza. He said the first redesign plans are quite similar to the proposed redesign. The redesign would include the elimination of the curved road entering the plaza from Wall Street which some tourists find difficult to navigate.
"It's been a problem for tourists that come to the fort," Bunn said. "Especially those who have RVs. Although there is a separate RV parking in there by the visitor's center, a lot of people miss that."
Bunn said benefits of the remodel include providing additional parking for the downtown area, providing safe pedestrian walkways, providing a more seamless transition into the downtown area, and it would freshen up the area.
The transition of Main Street to two way traffic is the least expensive of the three projects, however it cannot be completed without the redesign of Skubitz Plaza, according to Bunn. He said Main Street was originally a two-way street and when the size of cars increased, it was turned into one-way traffic heading southbound. When the FSNHS was remodeled, Main Street traffic was flipped to direct tourists to the FSNHS and away from downtown. One disadvantage to the current structure of Main Street is that tourists have to "find their way to downtown" Bunn said.
To achieve the two-way traffic one side of Main Street would be turned into parallel parking while the other side would remain angle parking. Bunn said this would result in the loss of about 25 percent of the parking on one side of the street.
"The concern then is that you loose a few parking spots," Bunn said. "That's why the additional parking in Skubitz Plaza was developed."
During the Dec. 15 meeting of the Fort Scott City Commission, Commissioner Jim Adams responded by saying, "I would love to have to deal with parking issues."
The purpose of the Dec. 29 meeting is not only for the commission to decide which direction they would like to go but to also get impute from the public.
"The commission is looking for additional impute, they are not saying it is a done deal by any means ... that's why they are having the meeting," Bunn said.
Through the process of the U.S. Hwy. 69 Corridor Study, from which the projects were developed, the public has been invited to provide impute every step of the way through design studios, open houses, and advisory boards.
"There's been an invitation and a desire to have impute from the community," Bunn said. "We've gotten some pretty good impute ... we were impressed by the amount of people."
According to Bunn, there is great deal of support within the Kansas government to get the application approved. He said the city has support from the Kansas Department of Transportation as well as the Kansas State Historical Preservation Office, a combination which is favorable.
"It is an ideal combination for the approval of this grant, and we've got those elements very strongly in this," Bunn said. "The state is very interested in doing something in this area."