By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
Downtown Bowling Green has new road pavement and water and gas lines underneath.
Getting to that point was difficult — just ask downtown merchants who struggled through two summers of work.
Tony Vetter, the executive director of the Downtown Bowling Green, the special improvement district, said the downtown’s businesses did report having a good holiday season.
But he noted it’s been 20 years, since the Heritage 2000 project, that anything has been done to improve the look of downtown.
The biggest improvement has been the Wooster Green project, he said. That was done with mostly private funds, whether individual donations or from service clubs.“We don’t want the energy that went into the Wooster Green project to go away,” Vetter said. “We want to continue that with some other projects.”
Vetter said: “As a special improvement district we took a look at what we could for the betterment of the business community and the community as a whole. … Where can we make our biggest impact?”
The board identified four projects: alley revitalization; cigarette recycling units; a downtown speaker system; and new holiday decorations.
A flyer was sent out to residents of the third and fourth wards in December to begin soliciting funds and get a sense of what people’s priorities would be. Vetter said he’s also making the rounds of service clubs, and is beginning to reach out to corporate offices to find money to get started.
The idea is to improve visitors’ experience of downtown through their senses — sight, sound and touch.
The alley revitalization, which has a price estimate of $50,000 per alley, addresses the access points to Main Street from the parking lots behind the businesses.
Right now, he said, they are clean but “bland” and “not inviting.”
They could be active places, “destinations,” he said, with lights, vegetation, artwork, and seating.
In fall, 2018, an architecture class at Bowling Green State University presented a series of concepts on how to brighten up and enliven Dog Leg Alley, which runs along the south side of Finders.
Vetter drew on some of those ideas, and also looked at how other cities have used their alleys.
“We are constantly picking up cigarette butts,” Vetter said. “It’d be nice if the general public didn’t do that, but we’re not offering a place to put them. … We have to make our downtown a more inviting place. Cigarette butts are not inviting.”
Disposal is necessary given 22 percent of Ohioans still smoke, he said.
The receptacles would be sturdy, metal and bolted to the pavement, and he said, “inconspicuous.”
They would be like those now on the grounds of the Wood County Courthouse, he said.
The approximate cost would be $60,000.
Vetter has located a company that will take the butts, which are made of plastic — “that’s why they don’t disintegrate” — and recycle them.
“They will pay us to send them the filters that are thrown away, and they make that into plastic wood,” he said.
The speaker system, which has a price tag of $120,000, would serve as an early warning and notification system as well as piping music into downtown at certain times. “It would not be all the time,” Vetter said.
The public warning system would come in handy when there’s an emergency downtown, such as the gas leaks that occurred during construction.
It would also be helpful during large gatherings such as the Black Swamp Arts Festival, if threatening weather suddenly moves in.
People are concerned when they don’t know what’s going on, he said. The system can be used to direct people to where they should go to be safe.
The system could be used to play music to set the mood downtown. “Music takes you to a place that makes you made you happy,” Vetter said. “So let’s do that for businesses and owners and customers and take them to a place that makes you happy and creates a positive atmosphere.”
The downtown’s “holiday decorations are in desperate need of being redone,” Vetter said.
They are “very basic,” he said. They need to be brighter, more colorful and more imaginative.
That comes with a price tag ranging from $50,000 to $250,000.
So far the alley revitalization has generated the most support, Vetter said. Though a big check could arrive at any time and change that.
None of the projects has to be done all at once.
If enough money came in they could do an alley.
The holiday decorations could be added to slowly.
A few cigarette receptacles could be added at crucial spots.
A larger part of the speaker system would have to be initially put in place. “You don’t need to do the whole area, but at least downtown and where the (Black Swamp Arts) festival is held,” Vetter said.
Downtown BG would like to raise $100,000 in the first year.
