THE FOLLOWING IS A NEWS-GAZETTE STORY BY JENNIFER BAILEY
ABOVE: The 12-story Bresee Tower in Downtown Danville, which has sat empty for 20 years, is slated to be demolished by the end of this summer, along with the adjacent former Vermilion County Courthouse Annex.
DANVILLE — Mayor Rickey Williams Jr. said he has a full agenda of projects and initiatives to see through in 2025, calling it a “year of fruition.”
“I think the thing I’m most excited about is that I believe 2025 will be the year that a lot of projects we’ve worked on a long time will either come to fruition in terms of actually opening, or construction and development for them will actually begin,” Williams said.
He immediately thinks of the new Sonic Drive-In and Jimmy John’s under construction on the northwest corner of the intersection of Vermilion and Fairchild streets, which are projected to be open by late March or early April.
On the southeast corner of the same intersection, Williams is also looking forward to cleaning up the brownfield sites of a former gas station and dry cleaner so it can finally be redeveloped.
The city didn’t receive any formal proposals for that corner in response to a recent request, he said, but it got numerous calls and officials have had conversations that have him confident there will be new development there.
Kirchner Building Center’s move from West Williams Street to Gilbert and Fairchild streets also will be big for the city, he said.
“There’ve been so many issues with West Williams Street forever,” he said. “It doesn’t make sense to partially fix anything when we’re going to be redoing the whole road.”
When Kirchner moves, the city will fix West Williams and put in a curved road, he said.
Other infrastructure projects are also planned.
“With the (American Rescue Plan Act) funds, we’re going to be doing seven out of the 10 top (highest-priority) storm water projects,” Williams said, referring to the city’s 2016 storm water study.
Williams also talked about finally getting Garfield Park improvements completed and having a design for Phase 1 of a looping trail along the riverfront, including a couple overlooks.
The South Street sewer project near the David S. Palmer Arena is months behind schedule and pushed back the final Phase 1 design for the riverfront, he added.
“I think that this year is the year of things coming to fruition,” he said. “Things that we’ve been working on a long time, getting fixed or opening or construction finally happening.
“Bresee (Tower), my goodness, that’s been, in this month, it’s been empty 20 years,” Williams said of the 12-story building in downtown Danville.
Final approval from the Vermilion County Board is expected this week on the contract and costs to demolish Bresee and the adjacent former Vermilion County Courthouse Annex.
Williams said the contractor will have eight months to get asbestos abatement completed and tear the buildings down. If everything goes as planned, he said, by Labor Day, the lots could be empty, or at least site cleanup will be taking place.
Actual demolition could start by about April or May, he added.
Planning also continues on moving City Hall across the street.
Williams also is excited about a movie theater and other stores returning to the Village Mall.
Another big project in his eyes this year is finishing some “last tweaks” to the city’s rental-housing ordinance.
The city’s new rental inspectors “are fully trained and out there on their own,” Williams said.
“I expect this year that we are going to see continued improvement of the quality of rental housing in our community, which is huge, most importantly for the people that live in rental housing, but also for their neighbors,” he said. “It will help improve their property values and things like that.”
Neighborhood revitalization and demolitions will also continue this year, along with the recent demolition of the former Model Star dry cleaners, and a few other buildings in the downtown area.
“We’ll just get rid of blight and make it look and feel better but also open up room for development,” the mayor said.
The city has updated its criteria for demolitions of dilapidated structures and implemented new strategies to condemn and acquire properties, Williams said, that he thinks will help it move through the court process faster.
The city should have the West Downtown area cleared of blight this year, and his hope is to make big strides in The Heights and Northeast neighborhoods.
Williams is also excited about having preliminary discussions with the Danville school district and Schlarman Academy about reinstating the Mayor’s Youth Council of high school students interested in their community and providing government officials feedback on issues.
The youth council started under former Mayor Scott Eisenhauer, and Williams said it was set to come back in 2020 before being sidelined by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said he was involved in the first county youth summit in 1995-96, and a lot of times, many students who were involved are also involved in lots of activities at their schools.
But Williams also has asked for students who may not be as involved to serve on the youth council, as he hopes to get more perspectives while helping to get them involved in their community.
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