The Chelan City Council heard Tuesday evening from Beckwith Consulting who gave an update on the Imagine Downtown Chelan project. Tom Beckwith gave council members what he called a “workshop” on what they've done so far, including results from the survey that went out to residents, to providing cost estimates on upgrading sidewalks and parking areas. And they're not cheap. We'll get to that in a moment.
Beckwith spent time on the pros and cons of expanding the sidewalks on Woodin Avenue, giving examples of 12, 14 and 16 feet, and how they would affect pedestrian travel and business uses, as well as vehicular traffic and snow storage in the winter:
Now, the cost. Beckwith showed council members a slide that detailed the sidewalk project. It had 31 items:
Total development costs for a 12-foot sidewalk came to almost 4-point-4 million dollars. A 14-foot sidewalk would come in at more than 4-point-six million dollars, almost 4-point-7 million for 16-feet.
Beckwith's suggestions for the north parking lot at Johnson and Columbia streets calls for an almost total re-do, from removing the trellis structure and current restrooms, and planting trees and putting in four unisex restrooms – two family and two individual, which Beckwith says would offer more space than the current restrooms. The cost on that comes to almost 375-thousand dollars.
No decisions were made, but the council was pleased with the detail in the presentation. Beckwith will be back with another presentation to the council in another month.