Phase II of Gibson City downtown improvements to get under way

GIBSON CITY — Mayor Dan Dickey highlighted a number of projects he hopes to get completed in his city in 2017 during last month’s meeting of the Gibson Area Chamber of Commerce.

Among them is Phase II of the city’s downtown improvement project. It calls for the replacement of overgrown trees; the installation of new benches, trash receptacles, planters and sign posts; concrete sidewalk repair and replacement; and the installation of a new sound system and speakers.

Expanding Wi-Fi to the downtown area is also planned for this year, Dickey said.

“We currently have Wi-Fi in the North and South parks, and people love it,” Dickey told the group in The Sandtrap’s banquet room. “Having Wi-Fi downtown would just be a natural extension of that.”

Dickey said he is also working to set up a “Gibson City App,” which would give users of mobile devices a quick and easy way to access information about the city and all it has to offer.

“I had a meeting this morning (about the app), and I’m pretty excited about it,” Dickey said. “Apps are used more than webpages, and it’s going to continue going that way. If you have the app on your phone, everything going on in your town that week or that day will be on there. I think it’s going to help a lot.

“What it means is that on your iPhone or Droid, there would be an app on there that says ‘Gibson City,’ and it’s going to have all of the information on all of the (town’s) events, schools, churches, civic organizations, businesses, etc.. ... So you can go down to, say, ‘parks,’ and it would give you directions on how to get there.”

Dickey said he hopes to hire somebody to manage the city’s website and upload information to the app. Dickey added that the city would rely on input from the chamber of commerce and local businesses to keep the app up-to-date and current.

Dickey said he thinks having the app would be “tremendous for our community — and cutting-edge.”

“I don’t think anybody else around here has an app, so we would be the first,” Dickey said.

Dickey said Phase II of the downtown improvement project is also in the works. Phase I involved replacing the downtown area’s lights with energy-efficient ones.

“There was a lot of underground infrastructure that also went in when we put the lights in,” Dickey added.

Dickey said works who were replacing the lights said some of the old lights “just broke” when they touched them.

“So several of those lights were ready to come down probably in the next ice storm,” Dickey said. “So I think it was time that we did that.”

The replacement of overgrown trees will be part of Phase II.

“They’re actually starting to buckle the concrete,” Dickey said about the existing trees lining Sangamon Avenue. “These trees really shouldn’t be there, shouldn’t have been planted there. So we’re going to replace them with a smaller tree  — maybe a Cornelian Cherry Dogwood or a couple of others that we’re looking at.

“We’re going to put costs together and go to the council and see if we can get this to happen.”

Dickey said how the existing trees will be removed and new trees installed remains to be seen.

“Part of the problem is these (existing) trees are so big, if you cut them out, you’ve still got the roots (under ground),” Dickey said. “And there’s a lot of underground infrastructure there, so you’ve got to wait three, four or five years before you can get (the roots) out of there.

“So we came up with an idea, where we could maybe go with concrete planters where the trees are (currently), so it would bring it up so we have three of four feet of soil where we could actually plant trees in the planters. That would also help keep them up higher (off of the ground), so you’re not running into them (when walking by).”

Dickey said the new trees could help with the implementation of outdoor seating downtown. Dickey said he has been working with several local businesses to implement outdoor seating, a measure authorized by the council last year.

“The council has already approved allowing tables and chairs outside, so we can, on a nice summer night, go outside and have our meals out there,” Dickey said.

Dickey said he would also like to add a new sound system and speakers for the downtown.

“I’m sure you guys have seen other towns where they have, like, street music, where people just play music,” Dickey told the chamber members present. “That sound system would allow us to do that.”

Also included in Phase II would be new concrete planters and curbs and the installation of landscape rock. Trash receptacles, benches, planters and sign posts would also be replaced.

Dickey said he hopes the improvements will not just benefit the downtown area, but all of Gibson City.

“I think the downtown is important for every business, because if you get somebody to go to the downtown, they’ll actually pass every other business (on the way) twice, to get to the center of town,” Dickey said. “So it benefits every business in town.”

Another project that is expected to be pursued in 2017 is the ongoing separation of the city’s sanitary sewers and storm sewers.

“We started that project maybe eight years ago, and we’ve got about four or five more years to go,” Dickey said. “So we’re pretty much on schedule. Eventually, our storm sewers and our sanitary sewers will be totally separate, independent.”

Dickey said the sewer separation project hopefully will increase the sewer plant’s capacity to handle new housing and new businesses.

“So we’re pretty excited about that,” Dickey said.

Dickey, who is running for mayor in this April’s election against Ward 3 Alderman John Carlson, said he and the city council’s priorities each year include maintaining a balanced budget, which includes keeping the city’s taxes low and “living within our means” by not borrowing money.

“All of our debts are paid; we’re totally out of debt,” Dickey noted. “And I think we have close to $1.2 or $1.3 million in the bank.”

Dickey and the council also consider infrastructure improvements a top priority.

“We’ve really tried to focus the last 10, 12 years on doing a lot of infrastructure (work),” Dickey said. “We’re doing a lot of the sewer separation so far ... and we’ve been doing a lot of street projects. Some of the streets (that have been repaired recently) hadn’t been touched in probably 60 or 75 years.”

Economic development also is a priority — perhaps the most important of all, Dickey said.

“We’re going to start hopefully keying in and focusing on economic development, and the beginning of that was basically the downtown,” Dickey said. “We’re going to focus on that area.”

Filling the void
During a question-and-answer session following Dickey’s talk, he was asked about any progress made recently to replace businesses that have closed recently, including the Alco store, Pizza Hut and Gibson City Meats & Deli.

“Alco, the problem there is the people who own that building, they want too much,” Dickey said. “They want way too much for that building. And until that changes, I don’t think (the situation is) going to change.

“As far as Pizza Hut, they shut down not because of anything Gibson City did, but because the Pizza Hut (corporation) wanted (the franchisee) to spend a lot of money on that property, and they just decided it wasn’t worth it. The good news is we’re going to have a new Mexican restaurant moving in here in the next few weeks.

“As for Gibson City Meats & Deli, we do have another business looking at that (site). That’s all I can say.”

Dickey said plans for a new hotel in Gibson City are being worked on, as well.

More housing needed
Following Dickey’s presentation, the chamber of commerce’s president, local real estate agent Ryan Minion, said Gibson City has a particular need for more housing.

“And I don’t just mean houses for sale but new development housing,” Minion said. “Everyone wants to be closer to Champaign and Bloomington, and we have the perfect placement with three highways coming through town and being 30 minutes from Bloomington and Champaign. And we have all the amenities that any small town needs to have.

“Nearby, Fisher is growing like crazy, and Mahomet is growing like crazy. The closer you get to (Champaign and Bloomington), the faster (your town) grows.

“But we just don’t have anyone looking to develop land here, unfortunately. A small, three-bedroom, two-bath housing community would go like wildfire. And if we did that, then we would have more (property) tax revenue coming in to the city; and we’d have more consumers shopping at our stores.”

Harvest Fest moved up
Minion also updated the chamber of commerce about plans for the city’s annual Harvest Fest.

Minion said the festival will cover portions of two days this year, rather than being a one-day event. It will also be held in September this year, instead of October.

The dates of this year’s event are Friday, Sept. 8, and Saturday, Sept. 9.

With the date moved up, Minion said, “it should be warmer, and we should be able to avoid any conflicts with harvest season, any conflicts with the Cubs and Cardinals in the playoffs or the youth football playoffs, and we should also avoid homecoming (festivities).”

Minion said the Harvest Fest website should be live soon.  On the site, people can view a tentative schedule of events.

“We’ll be adding more as we confirm things,” Minion said.

So far, six bands are lined up to perform on a stage set up downtown. The headliner for Saturday night is the Feudin’ Hillbillies.

Among the changes festival-goers can expect this year are a different location for the stage and beer tent in order to “keep it a more intimate environment,” Minion said. The location of the vendors may also be rearranged in order to “get more foot traffic” to them.

Events from past years that will be held again this year include the beer stein-holding contest, the children’s scarecrow costume contest and the bags tournament.

Sponsors for the festival will be sought in upcoming weeks, Minion said.

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