More good news for downtown Rogers, although it comes in an unlikely form. The heralded intersections are apparently causing some grief for a few of the downtown merchants, which was generally expected. But the downtown and Mayor Steve Womack are becoming even greater allies in the fight to attract more customers to the historic district.
New, positively-worded signs will now inform motorists that there may be construction downtown, but the shops are open. Personally, I have found it entertaining to simply visit the downtown, leaning against a planter or wall, an watching the crews tear open the road. So far, there have been a number of discoveries, particularly that of electrical cables powering those once prominent, ground level streetlights.
But the project is far from finished, and unless the businesses can find a way to attract more customers (as some are reporting traffic has been cut in half), there could very well be fewer businesses when the intersections all reopen.
A note to prospective downtown patrons: Only two intersections will ever be closed at one time, the plan being to maintain plenty of space for parking and u-turns, while traffic will not be diverted more than a block in any direction. I encourage everyone, even with the construction, to patronize the downtown merchants. Any purchases would benefit the local community and the people who live here, not go to some unknown headquarters for a retail business and line the pockets of anonymous board members (unless it's Wal-Mart, in which case they're not anonymous but have enough money already).
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