By Natalie M. Zeigler
City Manager
Downtown parking issues are in many ways a good problem to have. Increasingly, customers, employees and residents have a reason to be here, and we’re all better off with busy streets instead of deserted ones. But parking, as with any other kind of infrastructure, has to receive ongoing maintenance if it’s going to be adequate. It’s for this reason that beginning next Monday, June 29, the City of Hartsville’s East College Avenue lot on the south side of the street, closest to Dizzy Dancin, will close temporarily in order to be rebuilt.
After the sewer line and paving upgrades happening in Mantissa Row already, this will be one of the first phases of a major effort to build a newer, better East College Avenue. In this phase, planned to unfold over the following eight weeks or more, the existing paving and landscaping will be replaced to create an all-new reconfigured lot.
Of course, during this time, downtown parking will remain available on streets and in every other City lot, including the north lot on East College, by Sophia’s Pizzeria. Given how much we need our parking, there wasn’t going to be a perfect time to pursue this project, and we think of it as a form of growing pains for our city. We hope that the people impacted by the work will have patience with the difficulty involved. The end result will be worth the wait.
The overall project represents a momentous change, but also very good news for Hartsville – it represents a real and substantial investment in Hartsville’s future. This is an early part of the Multi-County Business Park-funded effort to build a new East College Avenue, including a new road surface, streetscaping and badly needed new parking lots. Each of these is crucial from an economic development standpoint. Adequate parking lots, repaired roads and an updated appearance are all needed for a business district to move forward with new industry and new people. We are rebuilding Hartsville, showing that we’re open for business now and will remain open in the future, even at a time when much government-supported infrastructure is struggling.
We can’t fix every issue on every road in Hartsville. Most roads are owned and maintained by the S.C. Department of Transportation, and we took ownership of East College Avenue to pursue this work. We can, however, select issues to address and find funding solutions, as we did in this case.
East College Avenue is the front door of Coker College and the connection to many downtown businesses and a large amount of parking. Even so, it has become notorious over many years as an incredibly bumpy roller coaster of a road. Hartsville deserves better, and I’m glad to say that through this, our community is getting better.
Natalie Zeigler is the City Manager of Hartsville. For more information, call City Hall at 843-383-3015 or email info2@hartsvillesc.gov.