we been planning for -- i been in office about 10 years, fran martin one of the community leaders has been there with us. we been planning for a long time our steets, the hibe prairie, the -- of course our green way, the valley greenway that is known all over the city and it continues down. that planning, that green way is going to influence what happens at slage hock. this community has been involved from the very beginning talking about what they wanted to see and how they wanted to see it. the merchants have been there ault way. we talked about what they needed to have things so that they could work well, what they immediated to make things work while we were cog the -- doing the streetscape. they were right there all the way encouraging people to come and continue to come. i can't say enough about -- about all of the city agencies, a lot of people -- that live -- that work for our city also live in our city. they live in our neighborhoods. they care about the places they work for and they work in. and i think a lot of that, you'll see, as they -- as we go forward, because of all o

i would like to recognize fran martin, a tremendously important in pushing this project forward. we have good news on the better market street project. we received a $250,000 grant, matching the $790,000 in crop k. getting the project fully funded for the study phase. i believe that this afternoon the complete interviews for the short list of consultants we will bring back the recommendation before the end of october. we have had significant activity on the boulevard study with an open house yesterday that was very well attended and quite successful. we are pursuing a three-pronged strategy there that includes it network development and strategy is to encourage sustainable roads and projects to improve the walk ability of the city center area. the project is much more far reaching than the civic center area as the circulation it ramifications in other parts of the city are west of sunset. on october 5 we will be hosting a community meeting to present and receive feedback on pedestrian improvement of three south of market alleys. ministry, tomah street, and -- mina, toma, and ring