UPDATE ON DOWNTOWN CONSTRUCTION
IT'S STARTING TO LOOK COOL!
The downtown Victoria traffic signal is now black and beautiful and coordinates well with all the new black decorative street lights throughout down-town Victoria.  It's looking good!  Light poles for the new downtown bridge haven't yet been received by the contractor.  According to City Planner (and Acting City Administrator) Mark Kaltsas, these poles are slightly different from the others and were a special order, but the light fixtures on the bridge are the same as in the rest of downtown Victoria.
The Hartman Communities Clocktower Building has taken shape and looms large and lovely on Main Street Victoria.  Retailers and office people should be excited about moving in sometime this winter.
All the utility poles have now been removed from the Downtown Alley which gives more parking spaces and less danger of fender benders as lines were buried underground.  Xcel anticipates removal of other electric poles along State Hwy 5 (from the Alley to Rose Street in front of City Hall) before mid November. 
All the downtown streets have now been paved and are wearing their final bituminous course, except for the Alley and short New Street which are sched-uled to receive the second bituminous lift next week, weather permitting.  Final cleanup and sweeping of streets is underway.
All the boulevard and sidewalk trees (approxi-mately 125 in number) have been planted, and those in poor condition were replaced.  All the pavers have been laid and inlaid, defining the pedestrian walk-ways and edging all the sidewalks and street corners and areas prepared to be planted this spring.  The Alley and New Street will also be getting paver crosswalks.
According to Mark Kaltsas, "The project is coming together and during the next two weeks the contractor will be cleaning up miscellaneous items such as sod, lighting, tree grates, and pavers."
It was a long hot summer, so the cool months ahead should be most welcome!

GETTING READY TO CONVEY LAND
TO SCHOOL DISTRICT 112
October 23rd, twelve days before the School District 112 referendum that should plant a public elementary school in Victoria, the Victoria city councilmem-bers approved a three-party agreement that defines the process for committing land to the school district for the new school.
The agreement includes School District 112, Lundgren Brothers, and the City of Victoria. 
City Planner Mark Kaltsas said the preferred school site is currently located in Laketown Township within the 450 acres preparing to be subdivided by Lund-gren Brothers, a development and con-struction company.  It is part of a larger 1000-acre parcel south of Deer Run that is to be annexed to Victoria in the future.
Said Mark, "The school wants a piece of land now, to start getting ready for in-vesting in site development.  We're ask-ing for authorization to execute an agree-ment knowing there will be minor changes.  It spells out how we'll be going from today.  This document makes the school district more comfortable and does commit Lundgren Brothers to convey land to the city so the city can convey land to the school district."
Explained Mayor Jerry Bohn, "The school district has concerns because the site is not in Victoria and Lundgren Brothers doesn't own it yet.  The district wants to begin building the school in the Spring of 2004.  All these things are in this document."
The mayor pointed out that the dis-trict already owns a flat piece of land in Victoria; the proposed piece in Laketown Township is hilly so a school designed for one site would not fit the other site.
Mayor Bohn added, "There have been amiable discussions, but you might want to know that this is Version Nine."
Stated Ken Essig of Laketown Town-ship, "We don't want piecemeal annexa-tion, but if this agreement is something that is needed for this school site, I'm sure we can site down across the table and work it out."

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