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Council reclassifies section of Prairie Street, strips its future as brick street

In what came down to a tie-breaking vote from Mayor John Pritchard the Galesburg City Council elected last night to reclassify Prairie Street from Dayton to Park Lane so it will soon no longer be a brick street.
Alderman Dennis, Anderson and Fleming voted against the reclassification while Alderman Schwartzman, Karlin and Allen voted for it.

Landmark Commission Chair Paul Stewart spoke in favor of keeping the streets brick saying that a policy had been made in 2003 that protected certain streets as brick indefinitely.

Director of Planning and Public Works Wayne Carl says that when that policy was put into place it was understood the city could ask the Landmark Commission for a swap of protected streets, in this case Grove from Broad to Prairie for the section of Prairie.

Carl reached out to the Landmark Commission to see if there was a street they would prefer be protected with brick instead of Grove but didn’t hear any alternative suggestions.

“Also I want to point out that this project got on the radar by the residents of the street coming and talking to their alderman, setting up a meeting and telling us in a room right here (Erickson Conference Room)  that they want the street done and they were fine with concrete if it means getting it done,” Carl says.

Alderman Jeremy Karlin who represents the section of Prairie voted against keeping the brick, citing cost.

He says the city has a finite amount of resources to repair roads and it seemed unfair to delay other projects to give Prairie extra features on top of a serviceable road.

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