FOND DU LAC, Wis. — After years of fixes and continuous traffic use, Main Street, through the heart of the Fond du Lac’s downtown, is getting a makeover in the coming warm weather months.
“It’s pretty beat up. It’s been cut tens, if not hundreds of times, for plumbing repairs, sewer repair, installation of fiber optic,” said City Manager Joe Moore. “Eventually, that takes a toll on the pavement… We’ve gotten to the point where we’re repairing the repairs. It was time to just redo the whole thing.”
The summer-long project costs $1.7 million and is designed to augment investments made in the area.
The roadwork is part of a longer-term effort to bolster the city’s downtown.
“If you’re not paying attention to and making improvements for your downtown continually, then it will get stale,” Moore said. “Pretty soon it’ll be back burner, and you can’t let that happen to a downtown.”
Julie Balson owns Gallery & Frame Shop on Main Street. The 50-year-old business has been downtown for more than four decades.
“Our Main Street is well traveled, and it’s got a lot of wear and tear in it and it does need to have this makeover,” she said. “I think when it’s all done, it’s going to be very, very exciting.”
Balson said she’s seen Fond du Lac’s downtown change and evolve over the decades.
“Our downtown is very vibrant. We’re constantly seeing new businesses open up. There are very few empty businesses or buildings,” she said. “I see our downtown constantly regenerating with new life and new businesses.”
Moore said the work will be inconvenient at times before it concludes in early September. He said maintaining the downtown has a wider impact on the surrounding community.
“What attracts tourists to a place is also what keeps people living in a place,” he said. “I think anybody who has been to our downtown looks around and says, ‘This is really nice.’ It shows a sign that the community is taking care of it and that we value it.”