Next Tuesday, December 10th, at 6:30pm, there will be a public meeting in the Lewisburg Borough Council Chambers at 55 S 5th St to review proposed improvements to St Louis St, also known as S 6th St - Phase I (St Louis St Streetscape Project).

The Bull Run Neighborhood has been pursuing a vision established for the area during the Lewisburg Neighborhood Project in 2004.  It is a long term vision for an attractive, liveable, economically stable and environmentally sustainable community.  The LNC was incorporated in order to further that vision for Bull Run and other parts of Lewisburg.  Since 2004, several projects have been undertaken to move that vision forward.  Some have been organizational, revolving around the establishment of groups like the Bull Run Neighborhood Committee and the Town Gown Committee.  Others have been physical improvements, starting with the wholesale reconstruction of S 7th St and moving on to the rebuilding of S 5th St.  The next step in the physical improvements will be the St Louis St Streetscape Project.  As the other projects have been named for the numbered streets, this project has been framed as Phase I of the imminent S 6th St Project.

S 6th St is in many ways the focus of the neighborhood improvements.  For the past several years, the Borough and the LNC have been working with both PEMA (the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency) and FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) to realize the next steps in transforming S 6th into a greenway as depicted in the Task Force Plan.  This is a multi-year and many stage process.  As a precursor to all that comes after, the Borough and the LNC obtained State and Federal funds to remove a number of the properties on the east side of S 6th St.  These properties are all sited in the floodway -- not simply the floodplain.  In the floodway rushing floodwaters push directly against structures, instead of just rising around them.  These structures are subject to repetitive loss claims and are being removed as part of flood mitigation programs.  Using grant funding provided for the purpose, the borough is purchasing them at fair market value and demolishing them.  When that is complete, the sites will simply be graded and seeded with grass for now.  A couple of the demolitions are scheduled to take place this month, with the rest scheduled for mid-2014.

Once that is accomplished, the Borough will be in a position to apply for planning grants to address the future of the creek and the S 6th St streetscape.  The ultimate vision is for the neighborhood to be more of a mixed neighborhood with many diverse residents (like the rest of the borough), with 7th St as the primary vehicular connection between downtown and campus and 6th St as the primary pedestrian connection.  6th St will remain open to vehicular traffic, but it will be oriented more toward non-motorized uses; its character will relate more directly to the park than the road.  Those next steps cannot be undertaken however until the property is owned by the Borough.

In the meantime, the next piece in the streetscape puzzle is St Louis St.  East of the creek, St Louis St was improved several years ago as part of a Hometown Streets project in cooperation with Bucknell engineering students.  The segment from S 6th to Hawn Alley is next.  The LNC is working with the Borough to apply to the Keystone Community Development Grant program, under their Public Improvement Grant category.  The proposal is to update and reconstruct the streetscape including utilities, road surfacing, sidewalks, curbs, street trees and street lights.  This will all eventually tie in to the future improvements along S 6th.  DCED (the Department of Community and Economic Development) rolled out this grant program during 2013 to follow up the New Communities program under which the previous Bull Run Neighborhood projects had been completed.  As a designated Elm Street Neighborhood, the Bull Run Neighborhood is eligible to apply with reduced local match requirements.

The upcoming public meeting will review the proposed project scope, timing, budget and larger planning context.  All are welcome.

In the coming year, stay tuned for opportunities to participate in the next steps of revisiting and updating the Lewisburg Neighborhood Project plans.  People interested in getting engaged in the process should contact the Elm Street Manager at 570-523-0114 or elmstreet@dejazzd.com.