Luverne looks toward the future

Talk about it

LUVERNE — Home to Blue Mounds State Park, the Historic Palace Theatre and a picturesque courthouse square, the city of Luverne already has a lot going for it, but residents of that community want to do more.

For more than a year now, volunteers have been imagining the southwest Minnesota community’s future — researching ways to boost Luverne’s eye-appeal, draw people into the business district and perhaps even establish an historic district.

Luverne 2021 has drawn together city and county leaders, business owners, artists and community-minded volunteers to work on the vision, which frames the community’s objectives to improve aesthetics, create vitality, enhance marketing, increase business cohesiveness and encourage enterprise, authenticity and education.

Local businessman Bill Weber serves as committee chair, and said the concept behind Luverne 2021 was to give people time to think about Luverne’s future and provide a timeframe in which to work.

“Like many of our Greater Minnesota communities, Luverne has had difficulty keeping our retail district going,” he said. “We made an effort a while back to get some community input — to find out what’s important in the eyes of the citizens, what types of businesses we need and what road we should go down in terms of redoing our commercial district.”

Jane Lanphere, executive director of the Luverne Area Chamber of Commerce, said several different committees have been gathering information on design — everything from the U.S. 75 (South Kniss Avenue) corridor to the downtown gateway, streetscape and landscape improvements and historic preservation — along with promotion, economic structure and special project ideas.

“There’s all sorts of initiatives,” Lanphere said. “We want to revitalize the community and try to get more retail — not just on Highway 75, but downtown — small shops that would draw people as a destination.”

One committee, she said, is tasked with finding a “big box-type” retailer to come into town, and the group has already begun conversations with a developer about that prospect.

While some of the ideas being discussed are long-term visions for the community, the short-term reality is that contractors will be busy in Luverne as early as this spring.

Sprucing up

The city of Luverne will complete water and sewer line work on South Kniss Avenue this year — work necessitated by the retrofitting project taking place at GEVO (the former Agri-Energy plant) to produce isobutanol.

“We needed to put larger sewer pipe in,” said Luverne City Administrator John Call, adding that it will increase from 8- to 15-inch diameter pipe. “That will serve our industrial area.”

In conjunction with replacement of the water and sewer lines, the city will also replace sidewalks on the west side of the highway this summer, followed by construction of sidewalks on the east side of the highway in 2013.

“We’ll put in more green space … and Rotary Park will be going in near Subway,” Call said. “With this project we will put in as many ornamental trees as we can to make it more aesthetically pleasing.”

“We’re making some effort to spruce up the area,” Weber added. “It has sort of a stark nature to it, and we want to make the entrance into Luverne more eye-appealing.”

The committee is also working with the Minnesota Department of Transportation on plans to complete a mill and overlay project on the entire stretch of U.S. 75 from I-90 to the northern city limits in 2013. Landscaping and beautification efforts will begin along the sidewalks in conjunction with that work.

“Nothing is concrete on how it will look,” said Lanphere, adding that garden areas and benches are planned along the sidewalks.

“The benches could be purchased, or maybe there’s a way the fine arts commission could create fine art benches from mosaic, rock or metal,” Lanphere said.

Lighting the way

New street lights are also planned along the highway in 2013 — complete with LED lights and the ability to display signs and banners, Call said.

The 2012 phase of the project has already been approved at a cost of about $800,000, while the entire two-phase project is estimated at $1.6 to $1.8 million, Call added. The city is working to access funding to help cover the costs.

“We did have a verbal agreement with MnDOT that they would (cover) 75 percent and we would do 25 percent, but we’re putting it in the (state’s) bonding bill, so hopefully we can get it through state funds,” Call said.

He said the changes proposed along the U.S. 75 corridor are a “once in a lifetime chance” for the city to give a better visual to visitors when they come into Luverne from Interstate 90.

“It’s the visual impression the traveler or the visitor gets — we want that impression to be better than it is now,” Call said.

Weber is quick to point out that there is no magic fix — that anything being proposed is a way of making progress. That includes improving aesthetics, new business development and even coming up with a brand for the community.

“What do we want to be known as in this community?” asked Weber. “What do we need in this community? What are we deficient in? What will bring people to our community?

“We’ve identified our strengths and we’re trying to build on those,” he added. “We’ve identified our weaknesses and we’re trying to cure those.”

Daily Globe Reporter Julie Buntjer can be reached at 376-7330.

Tags: news, plans, 75, revitalization, luverne