MINERAL COUNTY — Creede Town Manager Louis Fineberg gave an update on coming projects in Creede to Mineral County Commissioners during their Feb. 7 meeting.

Fineberg began by explaining that the town was awarded $250,000 through a CDOT grant to complete minor improvements in the downtown area of Creede.

“What we have already been awarded will be used for the extension of a sidewalk where there is none now, from Town Hall to join the sidewalk in front of the county building. We will also be redoing the crosswalks in the intersection of First Street and Main Street. It will be one crosswalk going across Main Street and one crosswalk going across east First Street and we have already received funding to redo all four crosswalks at the Wall Street and Main Street intersection,” Fineberg said.

Fineberg said that all the work would be ADA compliant as well as make the sidewalks and crosswalks look nice by considering colored concrete, but the town has not made a final decision yet.

“The idea is to make it all uniform and not just paint on the road. We would like to use a different material so that it stands out. Looks nice and stays longer than regular paint,” Fineberg said.

The town also will be getting some new public-use bike racks and four bear-proof trash containers that were included in the funding awarded through the CDOT grant.

“So that is for what we have been funded for already, and the grant we just submitted, if approved, would more or less result in having all of the sidewalk from the flume across the street by the Town Hall down to about halfway between 5th and 6th streets on both sides of the street. We are hoping to get all the way to 7th, but engineer's cost estimate for the project stopped us at 5th and 6th,” he said.

Fineberg said that the amount that has been requested from CDOT is $2 million with a town match of $500,000.

“The sidewalks that are there will be completely replaced by brand new sidewalks and all the crosswalks as well. I believe it ended up being a total of 14 crosswalks. In addition to that, we are looking to be putting in a coordinated streetlight system and relocating the existing utility poles. That is the base scope of the project,” Fineberg said.

The grant that has been applied for also allows for $5,000 in street art that the town plans to match.

“We believe we can match the $5,000 with $5,000 locally and then do a contest for local artists,” he said. The grant also allows for the purchase of outdoor furniture.

“The town is not under the impression that this project is not going to cause some inconvenience for businesses. The philosophy is just one and done as far as timing of the project and obviously, we won’t be doing work in July when we are at our summer peak. No business will have to close during the project. When sidewalks are being redone, we can keep entrances open to the business. The roads will not be under construction. This includes sidewalks, curbs and gutters to help correct some of the drainage issue we have,” Fineberg said.

If the grant is approved through CDOT, the town is estimating that the project would begin in the summer of 2023 or later.