If all goes to plan, Ketchum's Fourth Street Heritage Corridor will have doubled in size by the Fourth of July.
Phase 2 of the project, scheduled for construction from April 15 to June 27, will make improvements from Leadville Avenue west across Main Street to Washington Avenue.
City Engineer Steven Yearsley, of Forsgren and Associates, presented design plans to the City Council on Monday, March 3, and was directed by city officials to proceed by soliciting bids for Phase 2 of this three-part project.
With construction on the two blocks from Walnut to Leadville avenues completed last summer, the city will continue with its plan of creating a more pedestrian-friendly town center by widening sidewalks, narrowing Fourth Street, and adding new street lights and places for public art.
Yearsley said work this spring will require narrowing Main Street to two lanes at certain periods throughout the day, but that it will remain fully open at peak travel times.
Eventually, the corridor will span the entire length of the eight-block street from Spruce to Second Avenue.
"This is just a canvas for the city to build on in the future," said Dale Bates, a local architect and chairman of the Ketchum Community Development Corporation's town design team.
The CDC is a volunteer organization working on an array of projects throughout the city, and has donated time to helping design the project.
Bates said that while the budget only allows for reconstruction of the streets and sidewalks, the design allows room for public art and other community projects.
Of the approximately $4.5 million price tag for the entire project, Phase 2 is budgeted for $610,000.
Yearsley said that if the bids for Phase 2 are too high for the budget, the scope will be reduced by half a block, to the alley that runs between Main Street and Washington Avenue.
The second phase will present a few hurdles not confronted in Phase 1, as the one-block portion of Fourth Street in front of the Coffee Grinder is steep and will require installation of steps, ramps and vertical curbs. The steps will help with winter travel as well as enable children and elderly people to more easily walk the steeper sections of the street.
Last year, Fourth Street business owners complained that construction kept people out of nearby shops.
"We learned from our mistakes last summer and will minimize the impact on affected businesses," Yearsley said.
The heritage corridor discussion came on the heels of a presentation by Ketchum resident Royce Milaskey, who urged the council to consider incorporating public art and cultural pieces to showcase Ketchum's heritage and help give the city center a sense of space.
Milaskey said one step in that direction would be to complete Harriman Square, the ornate intersection of Leadville Avenue and Fourth Street, a project that was started over 25 years ago, but remains unfinished.
Along with two existing lampposts that feature crystal-shaped glass bulbs, the project also included a large sundial in the middle of the intersection.
While the steel sundial itself is now embedded in the street, a gnomon--the "shadow maker" of a sundial--was never erected, though the concrete base sits on the southwestern corner of the intersection.
Councilman Baird Gourlay said he would like to get the cost and design for the gnomon, and that perhaps the funds could be raised to finally put the sundial in working order.
