A new look is coming to downtown Willmar

Jennifer Kotila, West Central Tribune, Willmar, Minn.
·4 min read

Jul. 16—WILLMAR

— Willmar's downtown streetscape plan is coming together with a new design that will meet the requirements of the Small Cities grant from the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

Kandiyohi County Housing and Redevelopment Authority is applying for a grant extension to allow the city time to complete the project, due to the grant's expiration in September 2022, according to Willmar Planning and Development Director Justice Walker.

Walker updated the Willmar City Council on the project at the July 5 council meeting.

The city was awarded a $750,000 Small Cities grant from DEED, with $400,000 earmarked for the streetscape project and $350,000 for improvements and renovations at the Lakeview Apartment building at 300 Seventh St. N.W.

The city contracted with Bolton & Menk to complete the final design of the project. However, DEED told the city that the design did not fit the scope of the grant due to the extensive road and stormwater work that would be needed to accommodate the curb bump-outs — work that DEED said is not eligible for grant funding, according to Walker.

Bump-outs are a curb extension into the parking lane meant to slow traffic and make the walking distance from curb to curb shorter for pedestrians.

Bolton & Menk's design included redoing the city's curb and gutters to construct the bump-outs and would have cost the city $130,000 on top of the grant funds.

That design had been distilled to only one intersection of downtown — Fourth Street and Litchfield Avenue Southwest.

"If you would have seen the initial proposal, it was more spread out around downtown; it had a much larger breadth of downtown," Walker told the council.

After learning that the design was not in line with the grant specifications from DEED, the city terminated the contract with Bolton & Menk and city staff took on the design of the project.

With the redesign, the project was able once again to expand to additional intersections downtown by using mobile bump-outs that can be placed in the summer and removed in the winter.

"As you can see with this plan, there are tree plantings, there is a clock involved, there are multiple parklets," Walker said.

Parklets are small "green spaces" near the curb, usually in the parking lane, with seating and other amenities.

Also alleviated by using mobile bump-outs are the concerns from downtown business owners about a decrease in parking and concerns from the Willmar Public Works Department about plowing snow around the bump-outs.

Showing the council a map of the city staff-designed streetscape, Walker explained how the redesign is spreading the $400,000 throughout downtown.

Three intersections and several blocks of streets will be improved with the new design. The intersections that will have mobile bump-outs installed are Fourth Street and Litchfield Avenue Southwest, Fourth Street and Becker Avenue Southwest, and Fifth Street and Litchfield Avenue Southwest.

City staff worked with the Minnesota State Historic Preservation Office to reach an agreement for the grant design standards, and it was recommended by city staff to contract with Wausau Tile to provide the benches, planters and mobile bump-outs needed to complete the project.

After he was asked if the project is something for which the city should seek requests for proposals, Walker informed the council he contacted numerous local masonry companies and was told by all of them that what he was looking for was a specialized niche and he should contact Wausau Tile — that they were the sole-source proprietor for the materials which the city was installing.

The council authorized the city to accept the quote from Wausau Tile in the amount of $191,345 plus shipping.

In the meantime, while the city awaits the products from Wausau Tile, city staff will be gathering pricing for plants, dirt and trees from local nursery and landscaping companies to complete the project.

Items that will be provided by Wausau Tile include a large variety of benches and planters that will be used to create bump-outs and parklets. It also includes benches that will wrap around some of the 40-plus hackberry and Triumph elm trees proposed to be planted downtown.

Another feature that will recreate some of the history of downtown Willmar is the installation of a clock that replicates a historic clock that used to be in downtown Willmar. Former Willmar Main Street Coordinator Willard Huyck found a clockmaker that can recreate the clock.

"One of his last acts was getting together and finding a clockmaker in the country," Walker said. "He found this clockmaker and it's going to be an exact replica of the old Diamonds and Jewelry clock."