Due to a recent swell in temperatures, this past month was the first opportunity city planners had to get a good clear look at College Avenue. Appleton’s thick blanket of snow finally disappeared to reveal a piece of devastating reality: rather than constructing a new College Avenue this fall, city workers inadvertently filled the hole with the original old College Avenue.The unfortunate matter was finally brought to the attention of Mayor Bill Hanna at a recent city council meeting, although rumors about the replacement error had been circulating throughout the Lawrence Campus for months now. “I lived in Brokaw last year and was woken by that gosh darn construction every morning, and then when I came back to school this fall I was astonished; it’s the same f***-ing road,” says student Mike Brody. Student Chris Chan concurs, “Yeah, I came back to school and I was like, ‘What the f***, they just put the old road back with all the cracks and laid some f***-ing benches down.”
Apparently, it was the city’s full intent to construct an entirely new avenue as part of the state’s Main Street Program, but in a bought of poor planning, the old College Avenue was stored dangerously close to the Avenue in a warehouse behind Woodman’s. Project coordinator Geoff Hendrickson was stunned at the realization. “I don’t know what happened, the day came to build the new ave and, I guess, well, we just grabbed the wrong one.”
The committee for Main Street Project Two meets this week. College Avenue stores can expect another nine month shut-down as re-re-construction begins this fall.