City wants discussion on downtown upgrades

FORT MADISON – Fort Madison is planning some public information sessions to discuss the city’s comprehensive plans and city officials are looking for input on downtown Fort Madison.
City Manager Laura Liegois said the city has tentatively set meetings for Saturday, Jan. 17 at the public library from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.; Wednesday, Jan. 21 from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in Council Chambers at City Hall, and on Thursday, February 12 from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. at the Fort Madison Housing Authority meeting room on 48th Street.
The condition of the downtown sidewalks and curbing along Avenue G has been a source of frustration for business owners for years. But getting action started has been difficult. The closest the city has come to getting work started was an effort under former Mayor Brad Randolph.
The city was able to use an interest rebate off a $27 million state revolving fund loan used to improve the city’s wastewater treatment plant. In 2018 Randolph and the City Council laid out plans for a complete sidewalk and curbing replacement. However, only one company bid the work and the cost was 200% over engineering estimates and the project was scrapped. The unknowns of hidden coal shoots and condition of subsurfacing added to the increased cost.
Current mayor Matt Mohrfeld put the issue back on the council’s agenda in 2021 and former Councilwoman Rebecca Bowker pushed the issue again in 2022 saying the city needed to move forward with work downtown.
To that end no progress has been made. However, the city is in the midst of an EPA-mandated sewer separation where storm and sewer lines need to be separated and a lot of that infrastructure is located under city streets near the river.
Liegois said the city is planning to start work on separating sewer lines on 10th Street from Denmark Hill all the way south past Avenue H. She said that work will include some new sidewalks and that will include a portion of the 900 block of Avenue G to where a manhole is located. That work is projected to cost between $8 million and $10 million dollars.
The City has secured a $1.75 million Congressional appropriation and a $500,000 Community Development Block Grant. Liegois said the rest of the cost will likely come from another state revolving loan fund.
The remainder of Avenue G work will come in later phases of work, but Liegois couldn’t pinpoint when that work would be done.
“This will be the start of several projects that actually will end up with new sidewalks downtown,” she said.
“We need to have some public meetings, but I've been waiting on the engineers to come back and I'm hoping to tie that all in in January and February. with some comp plan update meetings to follow.”
She said the city has applied for additional grants for the project, but delays are still being felt from the government shutdown.
Business owners along the Avenue G corridor are skeptical of work getting done, yet insistent that the city take action.
Madeline Leake, owner of The Colony Shop and Bridal Loft, said something needs done, but she doesn’t have a lot of faith in it happening anytime soon.
“I’m not excited for it to happen. I mean, yes, does it need it? Yeah. But I don’t think right now we can afford to do it as far as business,” she said.
“Until the economy gets back to where it should be again, they better just forget this noise, you know?” To do all that, it’s going to be shut down for months.”
Leake has been in business downtown since 1972 and has been at the front of several marketing efforts to bring more people into the shopping district.
Christy Kelly, of Junque to Gems at 723 Avenue G, said she would likely close while improvements are made, but the downtown district needs to be preserved.
“We can still operate the way it is, but, yes, if they did come in and do them, yeah, we would have to be closed,” she said. “But when you don’t have a downtown, you have a ghost town.”
Ron Barnes, owner and operate of Under The Sun at 739 Avenue G, said work needs to be done to attract other business owners to the area, as well as customers.
“We have a lot of empty buildings, and that bothers me when they aren’t filled, you know,” he said.
Liegois said when the work begins downtown it will require a very strong project manager. She said Chariton, where she was city administrator prior to coming to Fort Madison, redid the entire town square there and it was tedious work.
“We have to have a very strong project manager on that project,” she said.
“I did an entire downtown square where we did one side at a time and they created pathways for them to get (to store fronts) and when that time comes we will have to work with it.”

Liegois said she didn’t have a lot of information on the last effort under Randolph but she does know that the coal shoots were a problem, but they had those in Chariton as well.
To be honest with you I haven’t seen anything on that project yet. I’d have to dig it up,” she said.
But she said when the work was completed in Chariton private investment came into the square and buildings began to be improved and it became a nice day trip for people.
“I think maybe you'll see a little of that here, too. I hope so. I mean we have some really great long-term downtown businesses, and we have people who really do care,” Liegois said.
“And I know you will get naysayers that say downtowns aren't important, but downtowns are important. Just like big box stores add to communities, but the downtowns are not the same as they were even 40 years ago, they're just not. You're looking for your specialty shops. You're looking for things that people want to do, those experiences,” she said.
Tenielle Speer, owner of Riverside Resale Shop, 816 Avenue G, said the work can be done and, despite the interruption, it would be nice for the business owners and the district.
“It can be done. It’s an inconvenience, but it can be nice,” she said. “It doesn’t take that long if you’re doing a small section anymore.”
Leake said it would be very difficult to keep the doors open during construction and would drive customers away for the time being.
Barnes also said working out of a side or back door would be difficult.
“We wouldn’t have an entrance in the back, and that would, that would really hurt. People do have a back door, but our back door goes into the office,” he said.
Liegois said there will have to be progressive planning and patience as the work gets completed, and that includes the same approach to time as to money.
“Again, this is not a happening in two days. It will likely be a phase-in approach. And, yes, there's a cost to taxpayers, but it's not coming out of the general fund.”
Without having funds internally means the project may require debt service and that could include the revolving loan fund. She said the city hasn’t discussed any downtown assessments, but said a downtown Tax Increment Financing district could be an option.
“There may be some resources there. So there are a lot of avenues to look into,” she said.
She said the city had actually been hoping to be into the construction phase of the 10th Street separation this year, but that didn’t happen so they are planning on construction next year and said it could take a couple years to get everything completed in that phase.
Speer said currently the sidewalks aren’t navigable safely.
“We have a child who uses a wheelchair. In general, it doesn’t matter if you’re able bodied or not. You just cannot navigate the sidewalk safely,” she said. “It’s just gonna get worse, the way it is right now. I mean, look at all the salt on it, it eats the concrete.
Both Kelly and Leake said they would be against any kind of downtown assessments or financing models.
“It’s not up to the business owners,” Kelly said.
“I would be totally against it,” Leake said.
Fort Madison Chamber of Commerce Director Savanna Collier said plans are also part of the collaborative visioning process.
"Obviously, having new sidewalks would be a huge win for downtown. I think it will be easier to recruit new businesses if we have safer, more accessible and visually appealing sidewalks," Collier said.
"I'd love to see a new restaurant or bar come in to add to our night life options. Our vision plan has some great goals for downtown over the next decade, and it would be great to see those come to fruition."
That visioning plan is at the following link in its entirety: https://www.fortmadison.com/visionplan2025.
Collier said the Chamber has been actively working to encourage downtown pride with business and building owners in hopes that there will be some improvements with facades, upkeep and building maintenance, vacant buildings, weed removal in the summer, among others.