Last week, the Guthrie Center City Council approved making another payment to Koester Construction for its downtown facade improvement project.

City Administrator Laura Immerman says the Council paid $31,286 and the project is now up to $578,425.

She states that the project includes re-doing 17 building facades of which the City has received a $500,000 grant through the Iowa Development Economic Authority to help with the construction.  They are now 75% funded for the project and Immerman notes that there have been some changes along the way.  Some of the buildings had brick underneath their different facades which Immerman points out that they will keep and restore some of those types of designs while not making too many modern updates.

She comments that the ultimate goal of the project is to establish Guthrie Center as a destination point for people to stop at, rather than being another “pass-through” town.

Other plans for some of the two-story buildings are to update the upper floors for housing and apartments to help bring other people to the community.

Immerman appreciates everyone’s patience and adds that if visitors come to town, they have construction signs up letting people know that the businesses are and have been open during the entire process.

The majority of the project is expected to be completed by this November with some final touch-ups expected in the spring.