South Marion Street ribbon cutting set for Dec. 1

For the businesses on South Marion Street that have been stoically, or with humor, weathering its daily drilling, dust and detours since early June, the timely completion of the improvement project is cause to kick off their holiday season with cheers.

The grand opening and block party to unveil the new and improved streetscape is set for Thursday, Dec. 1, from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. “For the party, we are planning to pull out all the stops,” says Eric Larson, co-owner of Marion Street Cheese Market. “We will have lots of cheese being demonstrated by vendors. Beer, wine and spirit vendors will be there with tastings, and maybe a Landert fondue demo will be part of the festivities that evening.”

In addition, live entertainment and prizes will be on tap, plus dinner specials and holiday promotions up and down the street. Oak Park Jewelers is planning to raffle off five $100 gift certificates for in-store purchases. Greenline Wheels and Salon 212 & Spa will also offer giveaways.

Feet on the street throughout the streetscaping project have been Craig Failor, Village of Oak Park planner, Loretta Daly, Oak Park’s business services manager and Daniel Grove, vice president of the Lakota Group, the Chicago-based landscape architectural firm hired to design and co-manage the job.

What everyone gets for the $5.4 million price tag is plenty, including bluestone pavers for the wider, expanded sidewalks; granite curbing, benches, sewers and lots of red bricks to charm up the new pedestrian and bicycle-friendly business district.

Underground, workers replaced a 101-year-old water main and more, says Mike Thomassen, estimator/project manager with the George Sollitt Construction Company.

“The materials that the streetscape committee selected have a life cycle of 70 to 80 years, so we shouldn’t have to get back into the ground for quite a while. This is fiscally sound policy,” Daly says.

Spiffed up and sparkly…

Unlike North Marion Street, there will be no signature archway, cistern or heated sidewalks, Failor says. Instead, overhead will extend a twinkling Tivoli lighting system, installed up the street and near Mills Park will be a garden. Along the sidewalk, new trees in structured soil will grow, thanks in part to a conservational underground irrigation system that collects and reuses storm water via the street side grates.

This, says Failor, is the second phase of a wider municipal plan to physically and aesthetically connect the three downtown business districts. “Bringing the streetscape on North Marion Street to Downtown Oak Park and visually and physically connecting them with the Pleasant District will allow the two shopping areas to complement and extend their boundaries.”

In addition, the village has secured $80,000 in federal funding to complete additional railway viaduct improvement work in 2012.

The next step, he says, is to do a similar streetscape project on Oak Park Avenue, north and south of the tracks. “It’s a conversation we have started and need to continue with the board to figure out the money, and all that goes with that, of course,” Failor adds.

Grove says that they will be continuing the design elements all the way down to Mills Park, which is currently undergoing a facelift of its own via the Park District of Oak Park. “Regionally, other communities are looking at what we are doing here and they are saying, ‘Wow, that significant investment could really pay off in dollars when you consider the tourism aspects and draw for more companies to shoot commercials and films in downtown Oak Park.”

Daly is confident that wider sidewalks, especially in the area around the eateries will pay off, especially during the warm weather when they can take advantage of alfresco dining season. “It will bring a life onto a street we haven’t been able to capture until now,” she says. “Look at what the new outdoor seating at Cucina Paridiso has done for that little stretch of area on North Boulevard. There is the ability to do that same thing in several areas on South Marion Street.”

Good news at the close of the project, asserts Grove, is that South Marion Street, which occupies more square footage than North Marion Street, was completed quicker and cheaper compared to the North Marion Street project. “That seems to me to be a pretty big homerun for the Village of Oak Park,” Grove says.