Water Street does not have access to a communal dumpster, leaving the businesses to get creative with their collection and storage systems. In the dense downtown district, trash storage is a major problem for most businesses.A new trash collection and storage system.This posed some creative challenges on their part, however they successfully blocked drains, used a bladder system to direct water away from the bridge, and extracted the majority of water they used with their washing system. Blue Ridge Exterior Cleaning was hired to power wash the alley to the best of their ability, while also minimizing any run-off into Blacks Run.The elements of the design project per goals: They agreed the project should ensure the alley would be accessible to all users and not block anyone’s mobility, the pavement should be cleaned, there should be an enhanced trash collection and storage system, and art and color should be added. Working with a group dedicated to completing the project on budget and on time (we came close), they began to hone down the ideas to a realistic design and set goals for the project. In May of 2019, Lauren Huber, director of resources, became the project lead with a hopeful completion date of late August. Concurrently, our committee volunteers joined us in more fun conversations – what could this alley become? We came up with project goals and started planning. We started holding meetings with city staff, property owners, and business owners to get their feedback and support. They sent us a map identifying four different property owners, along with a copy of the city’s easement for the site, and guidance on which city departments we should meet with (the Fire Department and Public Works). Our first step was trying to figure out if this project could even happen – so we approached the City of Harrisonburg Community Development Dept. Luckily the Friendly City Fortune was a successful fundraiser and allowed us to get the ball rolling on a community-based project. People asked for color, greenery, and brought photos of alleyways from around the nation and said, “wouldn’t it be cool if we could do this, too?” We agreed. In 2016, we held an “Idea Pop-Up” and invited community members to share their vision for projects that they’d like to see pop up around downtown. Before we held the first raffle, we crossed our fingers for its success, and asked the public to help in dreaming up the types of projects that we could do with these funds. When HDR launched our Friendly City Fortune Raffle in 2017, our dream was to raise funds to finance projects we had not previously been able to take on. This was one of the most exciting projects HDR’s staff and volunteers were able to work on and we wanted to tell you about some of the behind-the-scenes work that made this awesome beautification project happen. If you walked down the alleyway between Beyond and Finnigan’s Cove recently, hopefully you enjoyed the surprise you encountered! Clean sidewalks covered in a stenciled design, new wooden trash cans, new wooden planters with maple tree saplings, decorative lights on the branches, and a new trash system for Finnigan’s.
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