Plan is a step in the right direction

Fremont’s downtown is about to change.

It isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight, and the amount of change is still up in the air.

However, a presentation recently by Omaha consultant Marty Shukert made a lot of sense. Culminating months of meetings by downtown business owners, managers and others, the presentation outlined a few things that can be done to make the downtown better than it already is.

This isn’t the first time that a movement has developed to try to beef up Fremont’s downtown, but there is one big difference.

This time, the movement has the support of city officials. Fremont city administrator Bob Hartwig is pushing for improvements to the downtown.

Shukert said the first thing that can be done right away to improve downtown is to eliminate all one-way streets because they make maneuvering through the downtown confusing, especially for anyone new to town.

He also suggested replacing all stop lights - except for the lights on Military Avenue - with four-way stops.

The idea of traffic lights, he said, is to help traffic more easily get through a section of town, adding we shouldn’t help motorists get through downtown quickly. We want them to have to look around. Maybe they’ll see a reason to stop and go into a downtown shop. If they drive straight through, a lot of people will go right through.

Fremont Department of Public Works director Clark Boschult said any changes like that would have to be approved by the city council, but it wouldn’t be as simple as that.

Downtown curbing would have to be reconfigured to match two-way traffic, Boschult said. Parking patterns along streets would have to be changed. The stop light at Main Street and Military Avenue would have to be changed because it currently isn’t set up to control north-bound traffic.

Boschult said he isn’t sure how long it would take for those modifications.

An easy improvement is signage placed throughout the downtown to help people find what they’re looking for, Shukert said.

As Midland Lutheran College is trying to find a way to place a new welcome sign along Bell Street at the corner of Ninth Street as an official entrance, maybe downtown could use something similar. There is a "Downtown Fremont" sign at the corner of Broad and Sixth, but it gets lost partly because it’s low to the ground sitting next to a clock on a tall poll.

Downtown has a lot to offer and even more potential. Too many times people who are from an area can’t see what’s there - the proverbial line of not being able to see the forest for the trees.

Fremont’s downtown is vibrant. There’s a lot here that officials in many other cities would love to have. There are businesses in downtown that have been around for decades: The Fremont Tribune (I know that’s a shameless plug), Fremont National Bank, Sampter’s, Buck’s Shoes, Battiato’s Shoe Repair, Shuster’s, Kollmeyer, Krasne’s Home Furnishings and Schweser’s. I’m sure I missed some.

Another thing that Shukert recommended is for city staff to improve the downtown sidewalks, adding that in order for any real improvements to happen the downtown must look well kept. That makes sense. We’re not going to get private investors to put their money into downtown improvement projects if it looks awful when people walk down the sidewalks.

I think the information presented recently to downtown merchants, business representatives and others and again to members of the Fremont City Council is a step in the right direction. But one step isn’t going to do much. We need to keep going.

Don Bowen covers city and county government for the Tribune. He can be reached at (402) 721-5000, Ext. 1427, or via e-mail at don.bowen@lee.net.