Street, crosswalk and related improvements in the works for Williamsport

The City of Williamsport has received -- and is going after more -- grants, funding to improve streets, make safer conditions for pedestrians (including for students walking to school), and introduce thermoplastic technology for crosswalks.

"We received a grant for the West Third Street streetscape project," Bill Scott, city engineer, said during a video interview with Mayor Derek Slaughter and others on the administrative team.

"That is under design right now," he said, adding that construction on it is targeted for next year.

Right now, the streetscape (sidewalks, curbing, trees, lights) -- all of it is under design on West Third Street, from Hepburn Street west to Elmira Street, Slaughter said.

Scott noted the goal is to continue the streetscape west to Center Street and have the area streetscape improvements done between West Third and Fourth streets.

There are a number of multimodal state Department of Transportation (PennDOT) grants for which the city will apply, Scott added.

Residents can expect a lot of the older traffic signals to be replaced throughout the city as the city applies for "Green Light-Go" grants, Scott said.

There are other grants through PennDOT such as the automated red light enforcement grant for crosswalks in front of Penn College to be sought after and the city is putting in thermoplastic crosswalks on about five crosswalks throughout the city, he said. That goes with the city passing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Lycoming College for potentially five additional crosswalks in and around the college neighborhood.

Thermoplastic is not asphalt, not concrete and it adjusts a little bit and is more visible for traffic, Scott noted.

As more Lycoming College student and spectator traffic walks across Washington Boulevard from the parking lots and the intersection of Elizabeth Street to get to the ballfields and nearby Warriors football/soccer field hockey stadium that is nearby, the plan is to add beacons which will show an active pedestrian crossing, Scott said.

The city officials also are having conversations with PennDOT design engineers on the Confusion Corner, the nexus of Market and Hepburn streets and Rural Avenue to make it more pedestrian friendly, Slaughter noted.

Overall, what started with Valerie Fessler, director of the city Department of Community and Economic Development and continues with Melanie Shutt, city grants administrator/writer, the department is taking a strategic and deliberate approach to the grants process.

"I don't think we could overstate the value that that position has brought to all of the departments," Slaughter said of the grants administrator job, which began with Fessler and continued with the city hiring Shutt.

Before, the city was -- in terms of grants, as Slaughter described it, "treading water" to meet compliance and get the applications out and paperwork filled out.

The city was getting a lot of grants but did not have them housed in any one department, he said.

It was having, for example, members of the police and fire administrations -- whose time and talents could be used for other more important tasks -- having to spend time on lengthy documentation and applications for the grants.

"We were sort of piecemealing it and breaking it out to different individuals," Slaughter explained. Today, the process not only saves time but what Fessler started and Shutt has done is considered to be a "game-changer," as the mayor put it.

It is in keeping with a vision the mayor and administration and council had to have the department respond to what grants are available, process them in a timely manner, and follow a deliberate and strategic process to bring in grant funds that otherwise would never be available in a general fund budget.