By Mark Coddington
mark.coddington@theindependent.com

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Independent/Barrett Stinson The town of Cairo is poised to begin its biggest street improvement plan to date: a $2.2 million plan to overhaul its main street, Highway 11. Beginning next month, crews will resurface five blocks of the highway from asphalt to concrete, install a new storm sewer system that includes about 25 inlet boxes and runs beneath Highway 2 and the Burlington Northern Railroad, and replace a hundred-year-old water main. Independent/Barrett Stinson If things go as planned, next year Cairo will renovate the downtown¹s sidewalks and include a range of landscaping and new overhead and pedestrian lighting. Click Thumbnails to View

Since then, one at a time, all but one of them have been paved. And now the town is about to tackle its biggest project yet: a $2.2 million plan to overhaul its main street, Highway 11.

"It's the last piece of the puzzle," said Harold Veeder, chairman of Cairo's village board.

The last piece is a major one. Beginning next month, crews will resurface five blocks of the highway from asphalt to concrete, install a new storm sewer system that includes about 25 inlet boxes and runs beneath Highway 2 and the Burlington Northern Railroad, and replace a hundred-year-old water main.

And that's just this year. If the schedule holds, they'll renovate the downtown's sidewalks next year to include a range of landscaping and new overhead and pedestrian lighting.

The village urgently needs the project to solve a drainage problem the town is extremely flat, but water naturally flows south, where the nearest creek is miles away. The Dry Creek on the north side of town is just a few blocks from downtown, but it requires a system that can pump water under the highway and railroad and against the flow.

The village has put in some storm sewers in the past to serve parts of town, but it hasn't been enough, said village board member Dick Heckman.

In the meantime, rainstorms have typically left lakes in town. "You fill up the road ditch and hope that it doesn't rain some more," Heckman said.

This project has been seriously considered by the board for at least eight years, Heckman said, but it was unaffordable until the village could pay off the costs of its past paving work.

When the last payment was made last summer and several grants were approved this winter, the project was finally able to go ahead.

The village's share of the costs is about $1.2 million, which will be paid through bonds. The rest is being paid for by a hodgepodge of sources: $240,000 from a state Department of Economic Development grant, $118,000 for landscaping from the state Department of Roads, $50,000 for the storm sewer from the Central Platte Natural Resources District.

Heckman said the project shouldn't have any effect on the village's tax rate, as the board plans to use its revenue from the gas tax the same source as for its past paving projects to fund its share.

Besides the practical benefits of the improved drainage, Veeder and Heckman are excited about the aesthetic improvements of a spruced-up downtown. Both work in downtown businesses, after all Veeder at Baasch & Sons Welding and Heckman at Pathway Bank.

"When people come into our town, this is going to be something that's going to be difficult to just drive by," Veeder said.

A community committee gave input and helped set the vision for the plans for the landscaping and sidewalk improvements.

The group visited Burwell, Hampton and Grand Island's South Locust Street to look for ideas for their own downtown planning.

Veeder and Heckman said it's been helpful to have input from residents outside the board.

And Matt Rief, the project's engineer for Olsson Associates, said having a committee that worked alongside the village board was a key to developing a strong design.

"The (board) can give you direction, but it really comes from those business leaders and community leaders," Rief said.

The project is a cooperative with the Department of Roads, which is putting in $735,000 to turn that stretch of Highway 11 from asphalt into 9-inch concrete.

Wes Wahlgren, the department's District 4 engineer, said he was impressed at the work Cairo's leaders had put into the project already.

"Cairo's really stepped up on this one," he said.

Of course, all that work will mean some inconveniences temporary walkways to businesses, limited parking space, a short detour. But Veeder said he hasn't any negativity from residents, especially downtown business leaders.

"It's going to be inconvenient for everybody on Main Street at one point or another, but I think everybody is on board with that," he said. "They're excited about getting it done."