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Wednesday, August 15, 2007
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By
Scheri Smith ssmith@courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal |
Details of the sidewalks that were part of the improvements in the Preston Corridor. (By Kylene Lloyd, The Courier-Journal) |
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Members of the Preston
Corridor Planning Group
are not satisfied with
improvements made during
the first phase of a
project to spruce up
Preston Highway and say
that the work is nowhere
near finished. The group, made up of residents, business owners and others, has been working for more than two years to design a plan to improve the Preston corridor. The first phase of the plan stretches from Phillips Lane to Hess Lane. Plans for the second phase, which will improve the road between Hess and Eastern Parkway, have yet to be finalized, said Drew Shryock, assistant director of the city's Economic Development Department. Louisville metro government contributed more than $550,000 for the first phase. Improvements included new sidewalks and benches and more than a dozen decorative streetlamps. Concrete pavers stamped to look like brick also were added as accents. But residents have noticed a problem, said Dorn Crawford, an Audubon Park resident and planning group member. Crawford said some of the lamps don't match and some of the posts don't have lamps at all. "The characterization of this project as 'completed' gets a little hard to take," Crawford said in an e-mail to The Courier-Journal. Shryock, who worked with the planning group on the project, said the mismatched and sometimes missing lamps were an oversight by Louisville Gas & Electric, which rents them to the city. "I understand that LG&E put up the wrong light fixtures to begin with back in October," he said. "It was brought to our attention immediately." The fixtures planned for the area, which looked like Victorian-era lamp posts, were reordered and did not come in until recently, Shryock said. They have not been put up yet. "There are some tidying-up things that still need to be addressed, but the phase one streetscape improvement plan has been completed," he said. Besides the lamps, other loose ends include decorating a Norfolk-Southern train trestle above a portion of Preston. The planning group originally announced plans to either paint a mural on the trestle or attach some kind of metal artwork to it. The group designated a trestle committee to tackle the design. That committee did not submit a design plan to the city until recently, Shryock said. "It was provided to me two weeks ago," he said of the plan, which calls for a mural. "The plan will be submitted to Norfolk Southern to get their approval. They have to review and approve that design." Once that happens, work on the trestle can proceed, Shryock said. Neighbors, however, wanted things to move a little more quickly, said Liz Martin, president of the planning group and of the Belmar Neighborhood Association. She said even though the project has the proverbial "bumps in the road," any improvement is good for the neighborhood. "We are delighted about the changes, and we look forward to further changes," Martin said. "It is a positive outcome no matter how you look at it." Reporter Scheri Smith can be reached at (502) 582-4133. |
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