Mayor Bobby Bright is proud to announce the grand re-opening of Court Square in historic downtown Montgomery. A ceremony will be held on Tuesday, April 24, 2007 at 10:30am at the Court Square Plaza. The ceremony will spotlight the completion of numerous downtown projects that are in keeping with the Downtown Plan that has been adopted after the work of Dover, Kohl and Associates was completed. The most notable project is the redesign of Court Square that has returned it to a more historic look and feel. The new square includes a Belgium cobblestone base, a roundabout, the opening of South Court Street, additional on-street parking, and a more pedestrian friendly environment.

In addition to the re-design of Court Square, Mayor Bright will announce the implementation of the new Lunch Trolley Express, Downtown Wi-Fi, and a downtown façade improvement program. Once again, in keeping with the Downtown Plan these initiatives are designed to breathe life into downtown particularly the Lower Dexter Avenue area. The projects will be complementary to numerous other downtown projects. The Lunch Trolley Express will begin operating at 11am following the ceremony and be free of charge to anyone using the service. The Lunch Trolley Express will operate weekdays from 11am until 2 pm and provide pick up every 10 to 15 minutes along a fixed route in downtown Montgomery. The route and eating establishments can be found on the Transit System website at www.montgomerytransit.com or the soon to be completed web site www.lunchtrolleyexpress.com. As the Mayor continues to cheerlead revitalization, he also realizes the City must continue to be technologically strong. As such, the Court Square area of downtown will become the City’s first free, public wireless hotspot. The public will be able to access the internet on a wireless network managed by the City’s IT Department. The wireless cloud is marked by signage denoting “City of Montgomery Wireless.” While this initial wireless effort is supported by public dollars, the City desires to use the Court Square WI-FI project as a demonstration and hopes that a future public-private partnership might evolve to allow further expansion of the wireless cloud throughout Montgomery’s public gathering spots. Finally, the City’s façade improvement program will be announced as City planners have numerous façade improvement projects identified in the area surrounding Court Square. After mass notification to downtown business owners, the City Planning Department received several qualifying applications that will allow federal grants to be used to contract restoration of historic building facades.

Mayor Bright is extremely excited to see these projects coming to fruition. The Mayor values a well planned City but really enjoys seeing the plans come to life. On April 24th, we will celebrate such life. As an added feature to the celebration, there will be a One Mile Run/Walk at Court Square beginning at 6pm on the evening of April 24th.

ANY QUESTIONS CAN BE DIRECTED TO JEFF DOWNES, EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO THE MAYOR 241-2002.