Motorists will get a more inviting welcome to Albert Lea once First Impressions completes Phase I of its city beautification project.

Saturday, March 02, 2002

Motorists will get a more inviting welcome to Albert Lea once First Impressions completes Phase I of its city beautification project. Fund-raising has already begun and bids are out now on the construction and installation of new welcome signs.

Enough money for one sign has already been collected, said Jean Eaton at a press conference Friday in City Hall. So far, the response to requests for donations has been positive, she said.

According to Randy Kehr, the First Impressions member responsible for fund-raising, the total cost of the project is estimated at $45,000 and the group plans on raising that amount by the end of the summer.

&uot;We’ve gotten a major commitment from Freeborn-Mower Cooperative, and positive responses from service clubs and other groups,&uot; said Kehr.

Although the city will make staff available to help with planning and coordinating the project, all funding for what will be First Impressions’ first construction project will come from private donations. The current effort to ask for a half-cent sales tax has nothing to do with this project, said Pam Bishop, Greater Jobs Inc. executive vice president.

&uot;We’re not counting on any sales tax money at this point,&uot; Eaton added.

Having to rely on fund-raising from businesses and individuals may turn out to be a good thing, said Kehr.

&uot;It’s one of the things that if we want to do something about it, we need to do it ourselves,&uot; he said.

The success of the current effort is the result of cooperation with other groups, especially Greater Jobs and Destination: Albert Lea, said Eaton. The city also helped with funding for Jessica Arneson, the intern who worked with First Impressions last summer.

Tony Trow, a board member of Destination: Albert Lea, agrees in the partnership. But he also believes cooperation between different groups is more important than everyone joining together in one big group.

&uot;Separately we can specialize and stay focused on specific projects. What First Impression’s effort here shows is that working together we can make something happen,&uot; said Trow.

The hope is that all the construction will be finished by the end of summer. The tentative locations for the signs are on East Main Street near the intersection of Interstate 90 and Interstate 35, Highway 65 South and North Bridge Avenue, near the exit ramp for I-90. Time lines for construction depend on when arrange the actual sign locations can be arranged.

The design for the welcome signs was created by Arneson, a landscape architecture student from the University of Wisconsin. First Impressions had originally tried working with a design team at the University of Minnesota, but were told that Albert Lea was too large.

The First Impressions Team was created in 2000, after a business retention and expansion survey sponsored by the U of M, Alliant Energy, the Initiative Fund, the Albert Lea Port Authority, and Greater Jobs Inc. found that local business people thought a program improving the looks of the community should be initiated.