The City of Danville celebrated the completion of the Downtown Streetscape project with a day of winter activities and a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Feb. 17.

“We are excited by the fact that it is 99.9 percent complete,” said Danville Mayor James Atkins. “I want to give kudos to all the city employees and all the guys and ladies who worked on this project. The vision has come to fruition, and we are excited about it.”

City Engineer Josh Morgan is thankful for the community’s patience throughout the process.

“I want to thank our citizens and property owners who have been great to work with,” Morgan said. “Throughout this, it has not been easy, it was not going to be an easy project no matter what. We tried to be kind to them, and I think they responded to that in a good way. I am grateful for the opportunity to do this at home. This is home for me. This is the place I love. It is a great opportunity to be involved in this. It doesn’t get much better than that.”

The completed product includes new and expanded sidewalks, expanded outdoor seating areas, curb bumpouts, a new fountain, new street lights, new trees, new traffic light poles, removing bike lanes and a smaller median, buried utilities, among other things.

Boyle County Judge Executive Trille Bottom is glad to see Danville’s downtown be designed with pedestrian safety at the forefront.

“We are happy to embrace our new streetscape,” Bottom said. “I am so happy we have a safer downtown. Our daily streetwalkers have a shorter distance to the street. It just makes for a safer place to eat, visit our businesses, and just hang out.” 

To celebrate the new downtown, local artist David Farmer painted a rendition of Danville’s downtown. 

“During my several decades as a citizen of this town I have seen many cycles of change and transformations but nothing as dramatic as what has occurred the last few months,” Farmer said. “It has transformed the city into something energetic and modern.”

The first 200 guests in attendance at the celebration received a commemorative puzzle featuring the painting. A challenge was created to get all the pieces. Contestants had to explore several downtown businesses with each having a different piece. 

At the celebration, kids also enjoyed winter activities like an inflatable play area, ice skating, and the Snowman Shuffle race.