Ideas shared to help downtown Soap Lake

SOAP LAKE - Soap Lake is moving forward with their plan to revitalize the city's downtown.

The city held a public workshop Saturday to iron out the fine details so the engineers could begin the design process.

Those in attendance were divided into three groups to discuss what needed to be changed to the shading, streetscapes and store facades downtown. Mayor Raymond Gravelle and Washington State University professors Bob Krikac and Ole Steipness helped facilitate the discussion.

Gravelle suggested the addition of shade sails in the downtown could help people escape the heat.

"It's a developed technology that's been around for many years," he said. "It's used a lot in the southwest, a lot in Australia."

According to Gravelle, the shade sails require little maintenance, last about 15 years and can withstand up to 85 mph winds.

Trees were initially presented as an option for shading, but local business owners were opposed to the idea.

"[The business owners] aren't just against it, they are vehemently against it for a variety of reasons," Gravelle said.

Gravelle also presented the addition of seating areas and planters downtown.

Kitty Thomas and Nell Kovakh presented their group's ideas for store front designs. A popular idea was creating shadowboxes for art displays inside the windows.

A color palette for downtown was also discussed.

"The Coulee Corridor Consortium has really nice design portfolio details that they've worked with and spent a lot of time developing," Kovakh said.

Soap Lake's damaged sewer system prevented the project from beginning in June. Replacing the sewer lines and the downtown redevelopment plans has been combined into one project to make construction more efficient, Gravelle said.

"The idea is we get some efficiencies there of not having two mobilizations, two contractors mobilizing for two different projects," Gravelle said. "So there's some cost savings there."

According to Gravelle the city hopes to have all the designs done by December with construction beginning on the sewer lines in February or March. The redevelopment project will begin after construction is finished on the sewer lines some time in April or May.

A $648,000 federal loan will be used to replace the sewer lines and the redevelopment project will be funded by $1.5 million in grants.