Main Street Program Manager Tina Israel delivered the latest update on the downtown speaker project to her board during a special called meeting Nov. 17.
“I don’t want to call this bad news, but, it is disheartening news,” she said.
“There is a problem with our speaker system and it will delay us having music downtown.”
Israel added that the speakers had finally come in, but ran into a snag when getting ready to install them.
“Unfortunately, due to our light poles and where we wanted the speakers placed, we can’t use this set,” she explained.
“These are wireless in the sense that the speakers only hold a charge for about 16 hours then they have to be pulled off the poles and placed on a charging dock afterward.”
Israel told the board that she did not know how such a feature was overlooked.
“I don’t know how they could have been purchased like this,” she said.
“Granted, these were bought before I was hired, but, someone should have noticed.”
“I agree, I mean how could something like that be overlooked?” asked Board Treasurer Tami Savage.
“We’ve been on this project for years now and we’re so close to finishing. I’m going to look into what we can do to fix this without spending too much more time or money,” Savage said.
Israel added that she was working with the speaker vendor to address the situation.
“But, right now I don’t have an exact timeline on when this can be fixed,” she said.
“Believe me, I was in tears when I found this out.”
The nearly $6,000 speaker project was approved by the board in January 2021 and features eight speakers and two amp hubs that were to be located along storefronts on Sixth Street and Avenue G.
In other news, Israel told the board that:
- Downtown sidewalks will be pressure washed every Monday once a schedule can be established.
- Sidewalk trip hazards were being marked with blue tape to be addressed by public works later.
- Installation of new recycled plastic benches on the courthouse could start in January.
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