Improvements made at city-owned lake

The city of LaFayette is taking neighborhood revitalization upon itself. The city is making its PRIDE initiative about, not only residents clearing up blighted properties, but city-owned property as well with the Queen City Lake.

During the Oct. 10 council meeting, during the latest update on neighborhood revitalization, the city showed improvements to the lake as well as the addition of a dock.

Council member Ben Bradford said, “I go on and on about how most people understand that we have high expectations for the city and we want to be clean and we’re going to be involved. Most people understand that and are getting behind that idea and they’re taking action.”

The revitalization effort is in its tenth month and properties are improving.

The city is in the process of changing the boat ramp to a dock.

“It’s really going to look good,” Mayor Andy Arnold said. “I’m excited to revitalize that part of our neighborhood.”

“We don’t want this to be a one-way street, where the city is sitting on one side saying, ‘we want people in the community to participate and to clean up your stuff.’ We’re trying to look at ourselves, too,” Bradford said. “We realize we have got a lot -- a lot -- of stuff that needs to be revitalized at the lake.”

A slide show displayed the recent improvements in process at the cityowned lake.

Bradford said the city understands that the city is not perfect either and there are a lot of areas in need of revitalizing that the city needs to address.

The manpower has been the main cost at this time.

A group of concerned citizens are partnering with the city and putting in time and money into the project, Bradford said.

The city recently removed the overgrown, rusted chain link fencing from around the golf course on South Main Street to add to the recent city revitalization effort.