The second in a series of workshops to discuss ideas to improve Main Street from First to 21st avenues will be at 2 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. Monday, May 6 at the Donald W. Reynolds Community Center & Library.
The first meetings were on April 15 and Mark Mesiti-Miller, chair of Durant Sustainability Coalition, and Mike Delloro, co-founder of Durant Trails & Open Space, discussed the meetings.
They both made presentations at the meetings.
“Mike and I jointly presented a lot of information about Main Street from First to 21st,” Mesiti-Miller said. “We looked at the physical environment, the economic environment, safety, we looked at walkability. We presented a lot of information for people to react to.”
Mesiti-Miller said there were good conversations with people speaking about many issues.
“Mike and I were both pretty careful to not offer the solution because the solution really needs to come from the community conversation,” Mesiti-Miller said. “Our goal was to inform and inspire and create sparks of imagination. Like, what could be? We know what is. Everybody knows what is.
What could be?”
Participants were able to raise their hands to speak and there were index cards available where people could write down their concerns publicly or just leave the cards on the table.
“There was some really good conversation,” Mesiti-Miller said. “At the 2 o’clock session, Pamela Polk, the new city manager, and Kathy Moore, the economic development director, and Lauran Fuller, one of our council members, was present and they were able to respond to a lot of the issues that the audience wanted to know more about.”
At the evening session, Durant Vice Mayor Mike Simulescu was present and he fulfilled the same role which Mesiti-Miller said was really helpful.
Delloro said his perspective was to share ideas from not only Oklahoma, but elsewhere in the U.S. and see the impact of these concepts. The portion he presented was specifically the return on investment by adding sidewalks and beautification.
These perspectives were: How many more jobs does it create and how much more business can be attracted to Durant.
“Two case studies, one in Pawhuska, Oklahoma, with some of the projects they’re doing, not only specific to their Main Street and their downtown, but some of the parks,” Delloro said. “They’ve been able to work with different various entities to provide a meeting point to bringing their community together.
“The other example I discussed was Guthrie. They just went through a huge $1.1 million Streetscape beautification specific to sidewalks for their Main Street in downtown. Sharing those two pieces I think really helped enable folks that may not be aware of what do.”
Delloro mentioned making decisions that impact the community in a positive way while maintaining the history and preserving what is already in the community, “We want to preserve what we have and make those enhancements and benefit the community,” he said. “I think that’s what this all comes down to. I know Mark and I feel very strongly that we want us all pulling in the same direction and we want to make sure that the community knows that their input is valuable. We are promoting transparency and we want people to have a voice with expressing not only their concerns but as we get into part two, how about some of the solutions?”
Mesiti-Miller added that making the community pedestrian friendly is important.
“One of the goals that was identified in the comprehensive plan was to improve the walkability and bikeability of Durant and to make it more beautiful,” he said.
Mesiti-Miller noted that when traveling down Main Street, you have to travel through three very different environments.
“You start with a residential environment and you go to this commercial district that feels like a desert, this is nothing, it’s concrete and then you finally get to oasis of downtown,” he said. “They wanted to have a more seamless experience of Main Street that it should be a coherent visual experience for visitors. The idea is that Main Street is Durant’s front yard and it lacks curb appeal. It was sort of a feeling that was expressed by several people.”
Delloro mentioned all of the new jobs coming to the Texoma region.
“We’re at a crossroads with our community here in Durant to where if we could potentially attract some of those folks to living in Durant,” he said. “The growth is going to happen, whether we believe it to be happening, whether we think it’s going to happen, it’s happening. I feel like we can embrace some of these concepts and maintain the priorities. I know our council has to make challenging decisions, but adding some of these enhancements could really make an impact with bringing and attracting some of those professionals and some of those folks to Durant.
“High tides raise all ships and I feel like that’s a huge component of what we expressed through these workshops is that these are small pieces that when you stack them up, they make a big impact.”
Mesiti-Miller added that the community sentiment around improving the quality of life in Durant is strong and he has had many conversations with people.
“I walked door to door on Main Street and talked to business owners and we’ve been talking to community organizations and everyone wants to make Durant more beautiful, more attractive, friendlier, cleaner and greener,” Mesiti-Miller said. “It’s kind of amazing and I think people appreciated the opportunity to be heard. There really haven’t been a lot of forums in the community in which people could express themselves and share their visions.”
Mesiti-Miller said there was some confusion in the meeting initially because people have different ideas about what is Main Street such as it being just the downtown and there were not many people thinking about the residential part of Main Street.
“But I think having a conversation was really good for the community,” Mesiti-Miller said. “Having representatives from the city present in the room was I think the beginning of the building of some additional trust in the community.”
A piece that is super important, according to Mesiti-Miller, is getting the people together because they are the resource.
“It’s really the people that are going to make Main Street thrive,” Mesiti-Miller said. “The people are here, the people are enthusiastic, the people want to see change, people want to make it better, so I think that’s the key, that’s the foundation.
“I do think that council member Fuller at one point said, ‘We have new leadership in the city and things are going to get better,’ and I think that’s a true statement. It feels like the winds have shifted and we’re going downwind now. It’s a good feeling.”
Delloro said that Durant is in line to leverage for grants and the recent passing of the sales taxes for infrastructure will help. One of the grants is called Safe Streets for All that would require 20 percent in matching funds. He said a grant is what will help put the city ahead and allow it to allocate funds where needed.
“There are other infrastructure needs that we have to have and this is another component that can help further the city and we hope that the city realizes that this is huge for us to be able to pursue,” Delloro said.