Sidney is looking to do some exterior decorating, adding new “street furniture” on its main drag.
New benches, recycling containers, waste bins and planters could all be part of a fresh look for Beacon Avenue. The tentative budget for the beautification effort is $150,000, with council having put money aside for the project for some time.
“This is really to improve the look of the downtown,” said Marlaina Elliott, Sidney’s director of development services. “It’s kind of a makeover.”
She said a beautifying element was already added last spring when council voted to put rope lighting around all the light poles in the downtown.
“The lights are there all the time, not just at Christmas, and it’s really quite lovely,” Elliott said. “People have been very complimentary.”
Two different styles of benches are being proposed, one with seat backing and one without.
A sample bench and waste bin will be on display today, Sunday and Monday at the Mary Winspear Centre, and public input is welcome.
“We were trying to choose something that would be beautiful, long-lasting and durable,” Elliott said.
The style being looked at is made from powder-coated steel and produced by a Canadian company. It would replace current benches that are made from concrete and wood.
Elliott said there will also be an effort to have the new items “more strategically placed” along the street.
As part of the plan, any statues currently placed on downtown benches will be transferred to perches on one of the new models, Elliott said. The downtown has a number of statues distributed along the sidewalk.
Also being discussed for Sidney’s downtown is a possible return to two-way traffic along the section of Beacon that runs from the Pat Bay Highway to the waterfront. The present setup, established in 1997, has about one-third of that stretch designated as one way.
To comment on street furniture or Beacon Avenue traffic, go to sidneysays.ca.
