- At Tuesday's Wasco City Council meeting, the board approved a nearly $4.2 million bid for the Historic Downtown Business District Transformation Project. The project will focus on new sidewalks, ADA improvements, and updated community spaces like 7th Street park.
- 23ABC spoke with two long-time Wasco residents, Keri Cobb who is the city's Community Development Director, and Esperanza Melendez, a downtown business owner, and both noted they're excited to see what will come of the project and hope that will truly revitalize Wasco's downtown area.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
At Tuesday’s city council meeting, Wasco approved a 4.2 million dollar bid to help revitalize a section of downtown Wasco on 7th Street, but what is being done?
“It was time for an update. It just — it was time. Our — the improvements here were, were old. Infrastructure was old. The funding became available, and it was time to see if we could take advantage of it,” said Keri Cobb, Wasco's Community Development Director.
The Historic Downtown Business District Transformation Project will include new sidewalks, ADA improvements, and updated community spaces to name a few improvements slated for 2024.
Keri Cobb is the Wasco Community Development Director for the city and has been around the community for several decades and said this is likely the first project that’s attempting to revitalize the downtown space in several decades, and she hopes this near 4.2 million dollar project will be a benefit to the community for years to come..
“This has been my home for a lot of years and my hope that this is — that this is a place again, where everyone in the community can come together, enjoy a public space that's safe and clean, enjoy each other, learn from each other. I hope that's what it becomes," said Cobb. "That it's a place that the public takes some ownership over, that they can stop and have a picnic or enjoy a music event or holiday event. You know, I think those are the things that some of the things that I love about Wasco some of the things that really make a small town a sweet place to be.”
Esperanza Melendez has owned a flower shop and money transfer business in downtown for over 20 years and said that in her eyes, almost nothing has changed downtown but she’s excited about the project in hopes it attracts more people to downtown businesses when it’s finished.
“Hopefully it brings more people to come downtown because most people tend to go to bigger, bigger stores and they're abandoning all these small businesses,” said Melendez through an interpreter.
According to Cobb, the project is slated to start on January 8th of next year and be finished before the year is out.
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