This was the view Tuesday afternoon along the new Water Avenue sidewalk between the Ellsworth and Lyon Street bridges.
Now here was something you don’t see in Albany every day: parked cars inside big plastic bags ballooning in the wind.
The scene was the city-owned parking lot, newly surfaced and striped as part of the CARA Waterfront Project, on the south side of Water Avenue between the Ellsworth and Lyon Street bridges.
The lot is adjacent to the former bar and restaurant at 129 First Avenue N.W.
The building was having work done on the roof, which one of the workmen told me involved some kind of spray. And the contractor had wrapped the cars in plastic film to protect them from any overspray.
That historic but dilapidated building at 129 First N.W. is next door to the Albany Civic Theater, which bought the old property in February.
Oregon Heritage, a division of the state parks department, this year awarded the Albany Downtown Association a $400,000 “Oregon Main Street Revitalization Grant.” The grant was intended to be used to fix up the building holding both the theater and the long-vacant space next door.
Getting the roof in shape, no doubt, is part of that work. (hh)
Another view of the parking lot and the wrapped vehicles parked there Tuesday afternoon.
There also was lots of protective sheeting on the roof of the Albany Civic theater addition.
Good move on the part of the contractor. I recall a good number of years ago when the Ellsworth Street Bridge was painted that was not done and a good number of vehicles parked in the vicinity had ugly green spots.
And you wonder why the government including the feds, state, and muni are going broke!
That $400K is just being thrown down the rat hole as was the $23 Million on the park.
I would like to know what the $50 million the city got from the feds when they hit 50,000 in population was used for?
The city of Albany did not get $50 million. Without looking up the exact sum, the city gets about $350,000 a year from HUD because of its population size.
I didn’t know that Albany gets money from HUD (a federal agency) because of Albany’s size. Does anyone really think Trump will not cut HUD funds along with all his other cuts, so that he can give more tax cuts to his rich MAGA buddies?
My memory must be failing because the DH did report that when Albany reached that threshold.
It is great that Albany Civic Theater (a gem that this town is lucky to have) was able to buy that old eyesore which was First Round Tavern. They will fix it up and use it as storage space and rehearsal space, I’m sure.