Crows Landing Road businesses bid ‘Bienvenidos’ to south Modesto

Businesspeople along Crows Landing Road are trying to cast a new light on south Modesto. One way they’re doing it is with a glowing new “Modesto” arch at Crows Landing and Hatch Road.

Reflecting the largely Latino community around it, the sign also includes the Spanish word “bienvenidos” and its English translation, “welcome.” Unlike Modesto’s famed “Water Wealth Contentment Health” arch on I Street, this one doesn’t span a roadway, but does stand tall above the traffic at the busy intersection.

The arch was built at a cost of $66,000 by South Modesto Businesses United, a nonprofit formed about six years ago.

SMBU has about 110 member businesses and holds several public events a year, including a Cinco de Mayo parade, a Mexican Independence Day celebration, an appreciation dinner, a Christmas Posada and the Taste of Crows Landing, a Mexican food tasting.

“Between all those events, we save money for things like this,” said Cynthia Ruiz, a Crows Landing Road certified notary and the business group’s administrative assistant.

She and SMBU treasurer Isabel Chavez spoke about the arch effort last week at Chavez’s Crows Landing Road business, Los Amigos Tire Pros. They said the arch is the first part in a three-phase effort. Phase 2 is the sale of engraved bricks, similar to those that pave Tenth Street Plaza downtown. The sale of those bricks – $200 for SMBU members, $300 for nonmembers – will pay for the third phase, an electronic board promoting community events. SMBU was inspired by the Modesto Convention & Visitors Bureau’s message board on the wall of a building at the Five Points entrance to downtown Modesto.

The business group hopes to sell 400 bricks and is about one-quarter of the way there. A cardboard display inside Los Amigos shows what the finished arch and brickwork will look like. Each column will have the lighted logo of South Modesto Businesses United/Comerciantes Unidos del Sur de Modesto.

The group hopes to have the project ready before the year-end holidays.

“We want to do lighting at Christmastime, and banners, all to beautify this community,” Chavez said.

Crows Landing Road is a busy corridor, and the intersection at Hatch has especially high vehicle traffic, and thus visibility, the women noted. The arch project, Chavez said, is among beautification efforts in the area to encourage people to “come and take a new look at south Modesto.”

In February, the Modesto City Council accepted the Crows Landing Corridor Study. The study examines ways to make the busy south Modesto corridor, which includes incorporated and unincorporated areas, safer and more attractive. It was funded by a $247,500 California Department of Transportation grant, and Modesto provided a local match of $24,750.

The arch display inside Los Amigos shows a number of businesses, organizations and individuals who already have purchased bricks, from the Salvation Army Red Shield Center to Health Plan of San Joaquin to a number of elected officials: Mayor Garrad Marsh, Modesto council members Tony Madrigal and Jenny Kenoyer, County Supervisor Jim De Martini, Sheriff Adam Christianson and Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Turlock.

Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen, R-Riverbank, was excited and encouraging when she learned of the beautification effort, said Chavez and Ruiz.

Olsen told The Modesto Bee in an email Friday, “I am really excited to see our friends and neighbors band together to construct an arch that will welcome visitors, and stand as a testament to what can be accomplished – not with taxpayer dollars, but through the hard work and commitment of a united community.”

That hard work included months of meetings with representatives of Modesto and Stanislaus County government and Turlock Irrigation District, which allowed the arch to be built on its land adjacent to a canal at the intersection.

SMBU approached Councilman Madrigal with the proposal to build the arch.

“I convened a series of meetings, probably over eight months or more, with all the different agencies that were relevant,” Maddrigal said. Land-use and signage regulations had to be addressed, he said, and on the issue of the electronic events board specifically, “the Convention and Visitors Bureau shared language regarding the type of management and maintenance of that sign. The local sign vendor United Sign Systems was very helpful walking us through specifics.”

The project won approval from the City Council in October, he said. “This arch definitely is one more long overdue and needed welcome sign in south Modesto, and sends a message that we are all one united community,” Madrigal said. “And the local small-business owners on Crows Landing Road united to raise the funds to pay for it. No taxpayer funds were used.”

Anyone interested in purchasing an engraved brick can find an application on the SMBU Facebook page, or call Chavez at 209-531-1479 or Ruiz at 209-480-4578.

This story was originally published June 27, 2015 at 4:00 PM with the headline "Crows Landing Road businesses bid ‘Bienvenidos’ to south Modesto."