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Final Project Spartan Meeting a Huge Success

Posted May 22, 2010

Over 80 people attended the final in a series of three Small Town Design Initiative (STDI) meetings held on Thursday, May 20, at the Washington Elementary School.

The evening began at 5:30 p.m. with a historical walking tour of downtown. Approximately 35 individuals heard local historian Larry Peterson discuss the significance of several of the more prominent buildings along Main Street and U.S. 2. So that everyone could better visualize the present with the past, Mr. Peterson provided everyone a handout containing side-by-side pictures of the buildings as they look today compared to what the area looked like circa the 1940s. (Patrick and Terri Trigiano created a slide presentation of the handout which can be viewed here)
While this was going on, Chef Rocky Rockovitis and son John fired up the grill with great tasting burgers and brats. We thank Rocky and John and servers Ann Brown and Terri Trigiano for feeding the masses.

No event is complete without a performance from Marty's Goldenaires. Marty's graciously agreed to entertain the audience before the meeting started. Playing many of their old favorites, no one was disappointed.

And then it was time for the main event. Warren Rauhe, from Michigan State University's School of Planning, Design and Construction, provided those in attendance with a slideshow of enhanced images of Bessemer's downtown and U.S. 2 corridors.

Using hundreds of photographs taken during his first visit in November and public input gathered from the previous two meetings, Dr. Rauhe and his team developed digitally enhanced images comparing the current project areas to what it could look like in the future. The slideshow containing Dr. Rauhe's before and after images will be available as soon as we receive it.