PERRYVILLE READY FOR SECOND PHASE OF DOWNTOWN WORK; AIRPORT IMPROVEMENTS ALSO PROGRESSING

PERRYVILLE -- The city of Perryville is ready to embark on the second phase of a project to renovate the downtown business district.

Last year, the city completed the $1.6 million first phase of the project and is expected in February to award a bid for the second phase ... at a cost of nearly $1 million.

City Administrator Craig Lindsley said the second phase will include a facelift of the courthouse lawn with a large gazebo, ornamental sidewalks and landscaping.

It also will include street improvements that along with the recently completed first part of the renovation project will complete a nine-block square around the city's downtown business district.

"Phase two also includes doing North West Street all the way to Highway 61 and North Main out to 61," Lindsley said. "For all intents and purposes, we're tearing out the streets and redoing it completely with new pavement and sidewalks."

The city administrator said he expects construction to start in March or April. Completion of the project, which was two years in the planning, is expected to provide a boost for downtown business development.

"Perryville, like most communities, recognized the fact that infrastructure in the downtown was aging and hadn't been looked at in many years," Lindsley said. "We realized with the bypass around the city that some renovation was necessary or businesses would all move out to the bypass.

"We wanted to avoid the mistake of many other communities."

The renovation includes new, wider streets, decorative sidewalks, ornamental streetlights, water, gas and sewer lines, landscaping and a courthouse park.

When city officials decided about three years ago that the renovation project was needed, they made certain they acquired as much citizen input as possible.

The result? A project that Lindsley said has widespread support in the city, largely because its residents helped to draft it.

"This is probably the most people-managed process that could be used," he said. "We had a lot of public comments, and a lot of changes were made based on their input.

"The overall comments I've received from the general public have been very favorable," Lindsley added. "Also, the comments from people who haven't been to Perryville in a long time is they think it's fantastic that a city of this size is able to do something of this magnitude."

The city won its division in state Community Betterment Awards in 1992, largely because of the downtown renovation plan.

But the project didn't only give the area a facelift. All new water and gas lines were installed and sewer lines were repaired or replaced where needed.

The first phase of the project included improvements on the four sides of the square and extended back one block outside the square. The second phase will improve the streets and utilities on the perimeter of the phase-one improvements.

The project is being funded mostly with city money, with 25 percent financed through tax bills assessed to abutting property owners.

Lindsley said the downtown improvements already have inspired some downtown business owners to get in on the act.

"Several downtown merchants are renovating their storefronts," he said. "That's one of the residual benefits of investing in a project like this."

The Southeast Missouri Regional Planning Commission drafted the initial plan in 1990. At the same time, the commission put together an economic redevelopment strategy for Perry County.

Part of that plan identified the need for improvements at the Perryville Municipal Airport. The result was an airport improvement project that is expected to be completed early in the 1993 construction season.

That project will be funded primarily with federal Economic Development Administration Funds, in addition to money from the state department of economic development, the Missouri Highway and Transportation Department and the city.

The airport improvements include the installation of an eight-inch water line from the west end of the city extended to the airport, which previously had no potable water supply, and extension of the airport runway from 5,500 to 7,000 feet.

Another aspect of the project is extensive drainage improvements at the airport. In all, the airport improvements will cost about $2.5 million.

"The water line was done in 1991, and the airport project began last September after long delays with land acquisition," Lindsley said. "The runway extension is completed, and a majority of the drainage work is completed."

The new 7,000-foot runway can now be used in daylight, but lighting of the new section is unfinished.

Sabreliner Corp., which overhauls and repairs aircraft, will be able to expand its operations because of the improvements.

"The project already has allowed them to at least bid on projects that up until the time the concrete was poured, they were unable to seek contracts on that type of aircraft," Lindsley said.