City repairing sidewalks alongside Children's Discovery Center site

May 14—Efforts to beautify the Sixth Street corridor are ramping up in anticipation of a future Downtown attraction.

The city authorized the use of $220,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to replace sidewalks on the east and south sides of the Children's Discovery Center at 521 Felix St. at the city council meeting Monday night.

It is a portion of the funds already allocated for improving the infrastructure at the blocks surrounding the discovery center.

"Sidewalks is one of the things that the council wanted (to do) to make sure that we're getting that corridor in good shape to be safe for the residents walking to and from that discovery center," said Abe Forney, director of Public Works and Transportation.

One local mom said she is excited for the upcoming project because the Downtown sidewalks could use some improvement.

"I think that's a good addition to Downtown, you know, a good improvement," Angel Sandberg said. "Downtown's been really coming alive these last few years, and I think that's pretty exciting."

Sandberg has taken her children to Science City at Union Station in Kansas City, and she hopes the Children's Discovery Center offers a similar learning experience.

"When we've been there, there's a lot of learning tools, especially for the littles, and that would be something that we would like to see," she said.

The Children's Discovery Center is set to open in the fourth quarter of 2024. The city plans to begin pouring concrete for the new sidewalks before the discovery center enters that time frame.

"So as far as I've been told, it looks like around July is when they would start putting some concrete down for those sidewalks," he said.