About two dozen Valentine citizens, mostly business owners on Main Street, attended an informational meeting Wednesday evening with Department of Transportation officials. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the Main Street renovation project schedule for 2021 and 2022. Construction will include new sidewalks, curb and gutter and driving surface. It will also include new storm sewer, sanitary sewer and water lines. According to the current plans, there will be some changes including bump outs on corners, no parking allowed on sidewalk areas and new sidewalks on south Main.
According to Tom Likem from Olsson Associates engineering firm, the construction will begin on North Main St in the spring of 2021. The first year of construction will be from ‘A’ Street to 4th streets. This will be done in phases with traffic maintained as much as possible. South Main Street will remain open during this first phase. The second year of construction, 2022, will be from Highway 20 to ‘A’ Street. The north section of Main Street will remain open during this time. Highway traffic will be detoured during construction on Cherry Street.
There will be another stakeholders meeting on June 26th. A public meeting is scheduled for July 17th. If anyone would like to submit a comment on the proposed construction there are comment forms available at the studios of KVSH Radio.