Downtown Project

I believe that I have mentioned the city lot bounded by 4th, 5th, Market and Mill Streets, downtown. It has been a parking lot for a very long time but things are moving now. Some months ago they started tearing down the existing “structure” which consisted of a retaining wall. I’m oh-so-happy to report that they took care to leave and even protect the venerable, large tree that was on the site. I believe it is a copper beech, but I could be wrong there. They have begun building a new wall. Well, more accurately, they have built the new retaining wall, and it’s much shorter, and they have begun facing it with stone. Above the top of the wall the ground slopes upward to the surface. From the corner of 4th and Market that is quite a slope since the street is dropping away in that direction. At the corner of 5th and Mill, there’s just a small rise.

In the slope, on the downhill side, they have set many large, tubular pieces of either steel or rigid black plastic. These are dug into the side of the slope. They look to be about 4 or 5 feet across, and several feet deep at the high end. I can’t tell if they are intended to be planting holes, or if they are a step in another construction piece. There are too many to be air vents for an underground parking garage, I think. If they are for planting, they are really large, which would indicate the planting of trees… that’s my take, anyway. I’ll try to get a picture of them to show what I mean. Maybe one of you has an idea about their purpose?

Probably if I had the time to read the newspaper more thoroughly I would know what the heck they are doing there... bring on the retirement!